


Oblivion

by Riley_TheWriteyDude



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Frozen 2 (2019), Post-How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:54:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 33
Words: 141,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28789047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riley_TheWriteyDude/pseuds/Riley_TheWriteyDude
Summary: Despair, agony, failure; a love story. The chief of New Berk had to witness the last thing he would want to witness in his life as a chief; his people dying in vain. Will anything in this world ever heal him? I own nothing but the plot of this fanfiction. All characters belong to DreamWorks and Disney.
Relationships: Anna (Disney)/Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**You might see me in fanfiction.net and wattpad :) I decided to publish my work here too. Enjoy!  
**

**Hiccup's POV**

It was the first year of many upcoming years years where we finally tasted some measure of peacefulness. A year since we released our dragons to the place they belonged to, the hidden world.

The peacefulness was something never we were never really accustomed to. It was like a pair of gentle hands reaching for you. You get startled initially, heck do not even realize the gentleness of the hands, but you begin to accept them slowly.

And the new landscape was something we fell in love quickly. It was bigger, wider, more diverse, resourceful, it was a piece of Valhalla on land.

Releasing the dragons was one big step that was needed to be done. Yes, we missed our dragons terribly, but it did make us less of a target in the eyes of other foreigners. And with our new position, not many could find it and… we had higher ground! Strategically speaking, higher ground is always a plus.

Though, that did leave us with works to do, _many_ works. Building the civilization anew, adapting to the new dragon-less life which we were so accustomed to in the previous five years, and updating other allies about our new whereabouts since we relied some goods on trading. For the chief, it was quite the hard work.

Peacefulness. Even after three years, I could not get my head around it. That was, until _they_ attacked.

The first thing that started it all was a giant fireball flattening a house next to mine. It was followed by another one, and another one, until the night sky was basically lit by the incoming giant fireballs. My mind instinctively thought a pack of dragons were attacking us, the but fireballs were… manmade.

I alarmed the others to go out. I rushed my way towards the cliff to see where the fireballs originated from. It was hard to make out, but the moonlight provided enough lighting to reveal the fleet of ships heading towards the island.

Seeing them, I commanded Eret to ready the catapults to counter attack. It took us some time to prepare the heavy carts in which the catapults were based on, some fireballs even managed to destroy our catapults before we could even place them in position. It was chaos. However, it was about to turn worse.

We later discovered that the fireballs that had landed on our land did not just _land_. Minutes later, they exploded, which we never expected.

Boom there, boom here, as a chief, I was desperate. Our weapons could never counter attack the ships because they were already destroyed. Men, women, children were dying. We were trapped on our own island. Our final line of defense was the island's geographical shape itself. With no beach for the ships to beach at, the troops onboard would struggle to climb the island.

At least, that's what I thought.

As I was evacuating the others, I heard shots coming from the ships, cannon shots. But the projectiles that arrived were large harpoons, with chains connecting the ships and the harpoons. The harpoons stuck on the edge of our cliffs, providing them a way for the troops to step on our land.

Of course, seeing this, I had to order some men to get rid of the harpoons. However, before they could even lay a finger on it, the harpoons ignited on fire, giving us a harder time getting rid of these. I swear, the technology of these enemies was something else.

More and more harpoons landed on our cliff edges, until it was too many to bear with. I decided to tell my men to grab their bows and arrows. My plan was to shoot the enemies while they were climbing their way up the chain.

My men did as I commanded. I looked down the edge to see some dark silhouettes already climbing their way up the chains. As my men readied in their position, I raised my hand to give the signal.

"FIRE!"

My men shot fire arrows at them. It was the very first counter attack that I could actually deliver, and I had high hopes. My jaw dropped when I saw the fire arrows giving no effect on those troops. The arrows simply bounced off the targets.

I could not believe it. I told my men to shoot more arrows, but the enemies did not even flinch an inch. The firing stopped when I heard the cry of one of my men at the other end of the scene. I turned to it, and saw a foreign soldier already stepping his feet on my land. More of them managed to reach our island, signaling the time for a close combat.

I finally saw the reasons why my fire arrows did not leave a scratch on the enemies; they wore heavy armors made out of steel that I have never seen before. I haven't even mentioned their sheer size, they were as big as us! Well, not me, obviously, who's a mere fish bone.

Without even an order, my men attacked back at the enemies with their axes and swords. Driven by rage, they blindly charged at the enemies, who were, unfortunately, not driven by rage, but by skills. If I were to choose between skills and rage, I would choose the one we can harness. Sadly, for us, the skills of these enemies were something else. I saw one man dealing with three Vikings in the same time, and winning!

I began to feel hopeless, but rationality was there to clean the mind; my priority was my people. I kept on evacuating the others, telling them to run towards the boats to evacuate. Some stubborn ones ran towards the enemies, some not-so-stubborn ones followed my order, fortunately. But then, I heard the last bad news that I wanted to hear from Eret.

"Hiccup! The boats are sunk! They destroyed our boats! We have nowhere to go!"

It hit me hard like Fishleg's Gronckle. There were only two sides I could look at as I turned my head; the sight of bloodbath caused by my Vikings dying while battling the enemies, or the sight of hopelessness of my Vikings being trapped with nowhere to go. Neither was any better. I needed my dragons. This was the perfect moment for a blast of plasma blast.

"Chief of Berk, come out! Wherever you are! And we will stop the slaughter!"

I looked towards the source of the call to see a man in a shining armor. It really was shining because of the fire around him. Unlike the other enemies, he looked like he was the commander. His armor was golden, and he wore no head protection, revealing his bearded face and blue eyes that somehow glowed in the dim environment.

"Turn yourself in, and you will see no more drops of blood!" He offered, while raising his sword.

It was a no-brainer decision for me, though Eret tried to hold me back as I took a step towards the commander.

"Hiccup! No! It's a trap! Don't turn yourself in!"

I broke loose of his grasp, and ran towards the commander while raising my hands.

"I AM THE CHIEF! I AM HERE!"

I called out, and stopped on a safe distance between him. He judged my looks in disbelief.

"You are the chief?" He pointed his sword at me.

"I am… P-Please, stop this!"

He scoffed at my fishbone-like body, and gave a signal to his men to stop killing my Vikings. They arranged my men in a line with their hands on the air, and the tips of their swords placed right behind their necks, allowing not a single body movement.

"W-What do you want?" I asked.

He raised a brow cockily. "What do I want? Your land, obviously! Isn't it obvious? It's full of everything a man can dream of! Water, food, hell, good views!"

He stepped towards me, pointing the tip of his blade at my neck. "Here's something you probably did not know. High ground provides… better view. Better view gives you… I dunno, better patrolling? I expected some resistance when we were on the water, for God's sake! You made it a lot easier for me!"

I gritted my teeth in anger, but they were soon loose as the man used his sword to knock off my prosthetic leg. I dropped on the ground immediately.

"Your chief is weak!" He grabbed my prosthetic, and cast it off the cliff. "Your chief cannot protect his own, look at him! He can barely look for himself! He's limping!"

His men laughed at the mockery.

"You will pay for this…" I cursed.

"Uh huh," he looked at a man who seemed to be his right hand and nodded. "Do it."

I did not know what he was told initially, but it became clear right away, _too_ clear. They began execute my Vikings.

"NOOO!"

I ran on my one leg towards my people, but the swords behind their necks were faster than me. I had never witnessed bloodbath like this before. It was not the blood that killed me; it was the looks on their eyes, keened for a tiny shard of hope from me.

A man pulled me by the arm and threw me onto the ground, pinning me on the chest with a blade. I saw the night sky clouded with smokes from the fires, with my people screaming in agony.

"Find the rest of them! Leave no one behind! KILL 'EM ALL!"

The situation made me reach the point where I could no longer process anything from my senses. I failed as a chief. I _failed_ to protect my people.

Next thing I knew was that I was actually spared by the commander. He put me in a prison in one of his ships. He said something about selling me to someone because I would have a high value in money. But I cared none of that.

And here I am, three days on the sea, with no idea of where the ship was heading to. Not that I cared. I was too much of a broken man to eat anything, or drink, or even breathe. I attempted to kill myself numerous times, but they wanted me alive, so they had to cuff me.

The crying, the eyes, the fire, they never left my brain.

It's a bright morning, as sunlight makes its way through the wooden deck above me. One man descends down the stairs to scan the surroundings. Another man follows him, and he asks, "Where are we stopping again?"

"Arendelle, we're stocking up again there before continuing," he answers. The name made my eyes bulge.

Arendelle?

As in one of my allies, Arendelle, ruled by Queen Elsa?

Arendelle, the kingdom which we would trade silver for fur?

Arendelle?

"Oooh, Arendelle. Never been there. Heard the queen has the power to control ice!"

It's Arendelle!


	2. Chapter 2

**Hiccup's POV**

It is the fourth day that I have been imprisoned in the ship of my enemy.

Yesterday, I heard from the crew onboard that we were to dock at Arendelle. Initially, hope filled my being for a brief moment. But then I realized, no one could bring back the lives of my people. So, docking at Arendelle or not, it would make no difference.

I am better off dead.

My ears heard footsteps descending the stairs connecting the main deck the floor in which I am imprisoned at. They were heavy, and my guess was right; it was my feeder.

He is the man in charge in feeding me, making sure that I'm alive until another pair of hands of someone else's take me away. I can tell that he hates me so much, and I'm about to make him hate me even more.

He carries this bowl of porridge. Even by the looks of it, I can already tell the it's no longer warm. He opens the barred door and enters my small cubicle.

"Eat."

He places the bowl on the floor in front of me. With my cuffed hands, I was expected to dunk my face into the bowl to eat the meal. It was not that I didn't want to do, I didn't want to eat at all, regardless of how I was going to eat the meal. So, I remained still for a moment.

"I am not to leave you until you finish," the man stomps the floor. The meal on the bowl nearly spilled due to it.

"I don't want to eat," I said sternly.

He grumps, and pulls my hair to make me face him. "EAT!"

"No."

"You brat—" he lands a punch on my cheek. The hit made me flinch to the floor, almost kissing it. Then, I feel my hair being pulled again. This time, he places the bowl on my face, pressing it. using his thumb, he forces my lower jaw to open, and it did. Some of the porridge made its way into my mouth, some dripping down my chin onto my lap.

The man then pulls the bowl from my face, still holding me by the hair. "Swallow it."

I did say I wanted to kill myself, but this would take too long. So, I did as he commanded. My tongue tells me that it was probably leftovers from yesterday.

"Heheh… good."

He throws me off into the wall before walking out of the cubicle and locking it.

The porridge was all over the place; my mouth, my lap, the floor, there is barely anymore on the bowl itself. I never had my appetite, so I left it be. Soon, I sense some sleepiness in my head building up. Was it the porridge? Perhaps it was.

I closed my eyes, soon I dozed off into the realm of unconsciousness.

What seemed to be a few hours of nap was disrupted the sound of footsteps and… the lack of the boat movement. On the sea, the ship would sway as it carried on its journey. But the floor was still. Have we docked by any chance?

My eyes were still blurry. My soul was not intact yet after the sleep, but the sound of the footstep made me look up. I saw a man, dressed in an outfit that I haven't seen in a long time. He was slowly approaching the barred door, by his eyes, my brain told me that he was examining me. His face screamed disbelief while examining me. I could only wonder why, as he walked up to the main deck; almost tiptoeing, actually.

I turned around to see the circular window of my cubicle. It would usually give me a view of the sea, but for the first time in forever, I saw an entirely different view from the window. Mountains, cliffs, with a fjord between them. This fjord was one I knew too well. We have arrived in Arendelle.

Before I could climb up the crates in my cubicle to get a better look on the view, the bars behind me sounded _clank._

I turned around; it was the feeder man.

"Make no noise, or I'll kill you."

Exactly what I wanted, actually. But I nodded to him. Afterwards, he hung a piece of large cloth, almost like a curtain to cover my cubicle. I could care less, as I was mostly interested to the new view on the window. I sat on the crate and just stared at the view. I wish the window was cleaner, but it was what it was.

A few moments later, I heard loud footsteps on the deck above me. But what caught my curiosity was the conversations that I could eavesdrop. There were so many chatters, but one common topic; something about gunpoint and being surrounded. Whatever it was, something was going on.

The crew sounded like they were busy, running from one end of the deck to the other. All in sudden, it all halted simultaneously. Silence took place, _deafening_ silence.

All I could hear was a chatter between two men. I could hardly make out what they were on about, but one sounded pleading, the other sounded to be rejecting whatever the other man was requesting. The conversation soon was heard closer and closer, until a pair of boots descended down the stairs.

I stared at the curtain covering my cell door. It was soon pulled away, revealing none other than a man dressed as an Arendellian commander and a crewmate. He gasped after discovering me, but immediately cocked the weapon on his hand and pointed it to the crewmate.

"Explain this!"

Some more Arendellian soldiers descended down the stairs, some faces that I actually recognized after regularly visiting the kingdom for years. They pointed their weapons at the crewmate.

"I-I…" he could barely answer, and the commander took no more of his time. "Apprehend every man of this ship, for they have taken our ally, Chief Hiccup of Berk!"

His boys did as he commanded. They began apprehending the others after walking up to the main deck. The commander turned to me and shot the lock of my cell.

"My, Chief Hiccup, what have they done to you?" He checked my body from up to down. "Stay still."

He pointed the barrel of his gun at the chain of my handcuff, and a loud _BANG_ followed afterwards. It was safe to say that I jumped right up in shock. It destroyed the chain!

"Come with me," he took me by the hand and I collapsed immediately for being a one-legged Viking.

"Oh—I'm sorry! I didn't see you're missing your prosthetic!"

He helped me up, this time with my arm around his neck for support. The man led me outside, where the sunlight blinded me right away. For a few moments, I had to adjust my sight to the abundance of sunlight, since I was so used to nearly no sunlight during my days in the cell. Every time I blinked, the sight in front of me changed. I was on the deck, and the other moment I was on descending down a set of wooden planks connecting the ship and the dock. The other moment, I was already on the dock. I could not keep up with the changes in my environment due to the harsh sunlight.

Finally, my eyes regained their sight. The man and I were no longer on the dock, as I felt through my feet that the ground was hard, rock hard. Behind me was the ship, with Arendellian soldiers bringing the crew off the ship with force.

_Neigh!_

I turned to the neighing, and saw a horse stopping just a couple of feet away from me. On the horse, sat a familiar woman with a familiar face. Princess Anna.

"Queen Anna!" The commander called.

"Fitzgerald! Oh my goodness—" she gasped at me deeply before dropping off of the horse. Queen? Did I hear that right?

"H-Hiccup, what happened to you?"

"Whatever happened to him, one thing is sure; he was kept in a cell in this ship. He's been beaten down, it seems," Fitzgerald explained to the woman.

"I knew I shouldn't have signed it! They were fishy for a nation, damn it—I will take it from here, Fitzgerald," Anna took my weight by the arm. "You take care of these men."

"Consider it done, your majesty."

The strawberry blonde looked at me with a worried look. "Can you walk, Hiccup?"

"Q-Queen?" I asked, chuckling. "What did I miss, Queen Anna?"

She smiled. "Eh heh… I'll explain it later, after your explanation of what happened to you," she placed her soft hand on my cheek, despite there were stains of porridge all over it.

"Come."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiccup's POV**

Having arrived at the castle of the kingdom, the servants immediately put me into a wash. They first wiped off any dirt and grime all over me, which happened to be the porridge itself. Later, they led me to a bathroom, where a wooden tub of hot water waited for me.

It was exactly what I needed. Limping my way around, I reached the tub and stripped myself gently. After so, I hopped in, and relaxed for a moment.

_Creak…_

I nearly jumped in shock to see a female servant entering the room with a towel.

"Chief Hiccup?"

"W-What are you doing?" I asked.

"I am here to wash you, as I was tasked to," she approached me with a smile nonchalantly. I was blushing mad.

"I-I can wash myself! No need to!"

"Relax, Chief," she places the towel aside, taking out some soaps from a cabinet. "You're in good hands."

"I… insist. Please, I am not used to having somebody else wash me. I'm fine by my own," I pleaded, gripping the wall of the tub. The servant gave me a stare, nodding afterwards.

"Very well," she stood up, "If you need anything, I will be outside."

"Thank you."

With that, she left the room. I could finally relax again. I laid my back, intentionally drowning myself in the warm water to feel the warmth completely. It was heavenly.

I opened my eyes to see the surface blurrily. The color of the ceiling was the color of ash black. The first thing that came to mind was ash. I could only wonder why.

I closed my eyes once again to enjoy the warmth of the water. When I was about to resurface, I felt that my body was pinned down. My eyes opened to see what it was, and they couldn't believe what they saw. Mom?

Her forehead seemed to have a cut on it, allowing blood to trail its way down her face. Some even dropped into the water. Her hand grasped my head by the temples, keeping it underwater. I gave her arm a push to get my head free from her grasp, but she didn't flinch an inch.

I was running out of breath quickly due to panic. I used both arms to break free, but it was a vain effort. She was so strong. All in sudden, she added more pressure with her fingers, almost like trying to break my skull. Maybe it was what she was trying to do. It hurt so much, I screamed in agony.

And then I woke up.

I never drowned myself in the sleep, after all. The cozy warmth of the water put me into sleep, with a nightmare waiting by the end of it, apparently.

Two knocks sounded from the door across the room.

"Chief? Are you done yet? You haven't fallen asleep, have you?"

The previous servant.

"N-No! I have not! I just finished, in fact," I stood from the tub to dry myself off.

**Anna's POV**

What ever happened to him?

He had a bruise on the cheek, his outfit had many parts with cuts, not to mention his own skins. His eyes lacked of a soul, as if he was never there. He was probably too tired, but I couldn't help thinking that it might be the case. Something traumatic had happened.

Why was he imprisoned in a Therondian ship? I swear those men were too much of fools to not answer my simple questions… foolishness can only bring you so far. They somehow didn't know that I could just ask Hiccup himself later on.

They chose this. Very well.

The door of the small dining room in which I was in opened, revealing none other than himself, the chief of Berk. He wore a simple white shirt with a dark green vest, and a pair of trousers for his bottom half. I smiled at him, and gestured him to sit across me.

Hiccup nodded, and used his crutch to walk his way. On the table, foods were already served for him, but only one cutlery; a spoon. Berkians mostly ate with their bare hands, but Hiccup ate with a spoon.

"Thank you… Anna," he spoke, pulling the bowl of soup in front of him closer. "But I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish… all of these," he eyed at every single dish in front of him. Indeed, there were several, probably one dish too much, but I ordered extra since he might be in the need for extra nutrition.

"I also have had breakfast… you know," he chuckled, sipping on the soup. I raised a brow at his statement.

"Breakfast? You mean what you had all over your previous outfit?" I pointed a finger at him. "You must have been very hungry, there was food all over you."

He smiled. Gorgeously.

"Perhaps that was the case."

"You'll manage. Now I know it's not appropriate to talk and eat in the same time—"

"It is?" He cut me. Right. Different culture.

"Uh… it is. Maybe not in Berk, hehe," I sheepishly said. For a really brief second, I saw a flash of sadness on his eyes when I mentioned the name of his village.

"Um… Obviously, I really would like to know what happened to you, what made you end up in a Therondian ship. But I sense that it might be a sensitive topic, maybe you just want to talk about it later?" I asked, folding my hands with high hope.

Hiccup sank his spoon in the soup, staring at it as if he was seeing himself in the soup.

"Therondian… you said?" He asked, without looking at me.

"Yes. Therondia. A kingdom from the south. They recently signed a treaty with us to be allies. Did something happen?"

The chief pressed the spoon so hard with his thumb, judging from the color of it turning white due to the pressure. He was in pain; it was too obvious. I tried to reach for his shoulder, but he laid back against the chair, revealing his green eyes that screamed the trauma that they had witnessed.

"M-Maybe let's talk about it later, Hiccup… finish your food first—"

"They… they killed all of them," he spoke. My eyes opened the widest at his statement. "We were losing. Their weaponry was too much for us, and combine that with my stupidity in not investing some labor in the island defense system, we had nowhere to go but the boats. But they sank them! I turned myself in because their leader said that he would spare the lives of our people if I did so. It was a trap. They kept killing regardless, and I was already put in their cell to be sold."

He took a deep breath and faced his lap, most likely to hide his tears, but many drops fell to his lap already. I rushed to his side and hugged him from behind.

"RAGHHHHHH!—"

His scream was deafening, but I tightened my hug instead. I shoved my hands on his arms to soothe him, as it was effective on my sister. But he screamed more and more hysterically. It inevitably invited some worried servant into the room, who merely stopped by the door when they saw me trying my best to calm the chief of Berk down, if… Berk still even existed.

"I-I'm sorry, Hiccup… I really am… but please, calm down…" I spoke softly by his left ear.

When he ran out of breath, that's the moment when he finally stopped, and pulled me into a hug. Right away, I felt tears by my shoulder, as his face was buried in it. I made sure I poured every affection there was inside me for him in the moment by hugging him tighter.

"It's okay… shh…" I spoke softly. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, caressing his hair. It hurt me to see him like this. It pained me.

I opened my eyes, and let out a small gasp. Elsa was already here.

She was there by the door, telling the servants to leave the room quietly. It seemed that Gale had sent my message fairly fast. Once they left, she turned to me with a both puzzled and worried look. She mouthed, 'what happened?'

'A moment…' I mouthed back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Anna's POV**

"Goodness… the Therondian did this?"

My sister rested her back against the chair. "I-I…" she rolled her eyes to me. "We shouldn't have agreed to sign the treaty with them, Anna. I had my suspicion, but I never thought they were the colonializing type of kingdom."

I could only sigh while giving Hiccup a massage on his left shoulder. He kept his facial features hidden away from us. "I had mine too…"

Elsa gave the same reaction, a sigh. "What if we're next?" she shrugged.

I looked up to her and mouthed, 'not now'. She noticed right away that this was not the moment to talk about the topic.

"Uhm, Hiccup," I arched my back down to catch his eyes with mine. "I'm really… sorry to hear that. I really am."

He finally looked up to me. I sensed an ache in my stomach when seeing the pain in his eyes.

"For more than five years… has it been more than five years?" I counted the years we have passed since the arrival of himself upon my kingdom. I was seventeen back then. I was now twenty-two.

"It has been more than five years since you first came here. Five years since… I first spotted you walking in the hallway with Elsa. I could say that Elsa is most relieved to have formed an alliance with Berk, because we didn't just get your goods in our kingdom, but we also earned ourselves… a friend. A really good friend."

"That's true," Elsa placed her hands on the table, folding them together, her expression reassuring my statement. "Having Berkians as an ally was one of the best achievements I had ever done during my reign as the queen."

"During—" Hiccup said, and his mouth rounded afterwards, breathing an 'ohh'. "Right, you're no longer the queen," the Viking straightened his back. "What position do you now hold, Elsa?" He asked with a curious expression, which was much of a better sight to see than the previous one.

"I am… a spirit!" She chuckled afterwards.

Hiccup returned the chuckle. "Funny. What is it?"

"She really is a spirit, Hiccup," I replied. "It's quite the long story, but still pretty warm, isn't it?" I glanced to my sister, who nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, three months is still pretty warm."

"Oh no, did something bad happen here as well?" Hiccup asked.

"Umm… It certainly could've gone bad. It really could have," I turned to my sister. She gave an uneasy smile. "But she saved the day."

"You played a major part as well, Anna. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to save Arendelle."

"Yeah, I guess. Anywayyyy—" I slightly slapped my lap. "What I was going to say is… You're more than welcome to stay here in the castle. I think it's better to give you some time to cool down first. I'll definitely help you out in the process," I smiled reassuringly. "Then we will think of the next step to take afterwards. Together. But do take your time, Hicc."

"What do you plan on doing, Hiccup?" Elsa asked. The moment she took to ask this question was the worst, so I turned to her and gave her a stare that screamed 'not now!'. She immediately acknowledged it, but,

"I… do not know."

Inside, I was quite shock to hear it. My typical stereotyped brain was expecting a revenge was what Hiccup wanted. But it was a better response overall.

"We will discuss that," I turned to my sister, "later."

I stood up. "Let me show you your room, shall we?"

Before standing up, he had one last bite on his meal. He actually finished eating every dish there was, which was a surprise contrary to what he said before starting his meal. I helped him use his crutch to stand up, and hearing him grunt as he placed the top in his armpit showed how much of an uncomfortable device it was.

"I'll see if I can get you a new prosthetic for you, Hiccup. Maybe the blacksmith will be able to make one," I suggested.

"Oh don't bother," he took a step. "I will make one by my own someday. Just need a lumber and a stove and some leftover steel and some sweat and…" he took another step and nearly lost his balance had I not pulled him by the shirt.

"Someone to help you balance yourself?" I asked.

He nodded. "Sure, that too."

"You know…" Elsa spoke, "I might be able to craft something out…"

I gasped. "You're right! Do you remember how his prosthetic looks like?"

"I suppose you didn't change it much, from we first met?" Elsa asked the Viking, motioning her hands to summon a flurry of ice out of thin air.

He shrugged. "Mm… not really. I did do some improvements, but they're barely visible from naked eyes. But I'll take anything that you can make."

"Very well."

With that, we spectated Elsa dancing with her arms. A base shaped in a tube was made, and each of her finger's movement carved out details in the base. Her careful eyes inspected it from many angles each time she made a difference on the shape. After a minute of a magical show of Elsa's ice-crafting skills, she handed the Viking her version of his prosthetic.

"I'm… impressed," he smiled, inspecting it. He placed it on the end of his left leg and tried to stand with it,

and slipped.

"HICCUP!" I called.

I reached for his arms and helped him sit on the chair again. Luckily, he merely landed on his butt.

"I forgot that ice is… slippery," Elsa scratched the back of her hair. "Sorry."

Something heartwarming was displayed in front of me afterwards, he laughed!

"I sort of did too," Hiccup blew a raspberry. "And will this at one point melt? Or not?"

"It will melt, but it takes a longer time for my ice to melt," she smiled proudly.

He raised a brow. "Why?"

"I dunno," I answered. "Magic? Let's go to your room," I told the male.

With that, the three of us made our way to the room. Because of Hiccup's inability to walk as fast as he would have liked, we had some time to chat, in which the topic happened to be how I became the queen of Arendelle and Elsa the fifth spirit of our land. We shared laughs, amusement, and some details that Elsa shared to me that I didn't know previously after she sent me away with Olaf. In return, I shared her details of the times when she was not by my side in our adventure.

The story very much entertained the Viking, which was a mission successfully done for me. Every bit of happiness surfacing on the Viking's facial feature was a yes-please for me, especially knowing that… he had lost everything. I knew that this would be a long road ahead of him. I would like to be there for him. I wanted to make sure that he would get there, to the point where he would forgive himself, the point where he finally heals.

"That's a really cool story from you two," he stated while looking the two of us. "I'm happy that everything turns out okay," he said, turning forward. His last statement was… something I couldn't help but to think that it's what he would've very much wanted as the outcome of what happened to his people. I was about to reach for his shoulder, but he cut me,

"Is that the room?" Hiccup asked, pointing at a door.

I pulled my hand. "Um, it is. How did you know?"

"It's… the only door there is in here," he gestured at the surroundings. We were in the end of a corridor, and… oh yes. He's true.

"Oh yeah, true," I sheepishly replied. "Now it should be unlocked, as I have told Gerda to prepare it…"

I twisted the doorknob, and the door opened.

"Right, here's your room, Hicc."

He slowly made his way in, scanning the interior along the way. It was currently midday, so the large windows gave more than enough lighting inside the room. In the middle sat a bed enough for two, not that he needed two, anyway, but we thought we would give extra for our friend.

"The bathroom is right there," Elsa instructed, pointing at a door at the corner of the room. "And worry not, we told the servants to let you wash yourself next time," she snickered.

"Heh…" he turned around to us. "Thank you, Anna, Elsa. Thank you very much."

"You're more than welcome, Hiccup," I replied, smiling.

He landed his bottom and his crutch on the bed. He removed his green vest, leaving his white shirt on only. "I think I'm going to rest now. For once, I need to sleep on a level surface."

"Of course," I stepped back with my sister, grabbing the doorknob. "If you need something, just tell me, okay? Dinner is at half to eight."

"I will," he half smiled. "Thank you."

"Sleep well," Elsa bid.

With that, we closed the door to leave the Viking alone.

I started walking, "he's a broken man. I can't stand watching him like that."

"Neither can I," Elsa pulled me by the shoulder, shoving her hand on my arm to soothe me. "Give him time. Let's be grateful for the fact that our men found him _accidentally_ ," she emphasized her last word. "Had they not, we would've never found what happened to him at all. What did you do to the crew of the ship of Therondia, anyway?"

"I cast them into the dungeon. They're our enemies now," I sighed.

"Good. That means the people in their home have no idea that we have learnt about their plan, we have the upper hand," she commented. "Maybe we can interrogate the Therondian you have kept in the dungeon as well—"

"I tried. They didn't answer any of my question."

"Did you use force? Maybe a strangle on the neck? At gunpoint?"

I turned to her. "Of course I didn't. that's not me!"

She stopped at her track. "Anna, if they really have slaughtered every single Berkian out there except Hiccup, to which I'm sure that he would've ended up in a worse death had they not planned to sell him to God knows who, some beating on those men's faces would mean nothing compared to the lives they have taken! Look what they did to him, the guy practically has nothing left in his life to look up to!"

"I…" Clenching my fist, I clicked my tongue in defeat.

"You're right..."

"I will interrogate those men," Elsa proposed.

"Not without me! And some guards!" I raised a finger to warn her.

"Sure—"

"Oh HEY ELSA!"

The voice belonging to the snowman we both knew and loved called from the other end of the hallway, Olaf. He approached ran towards us with his arms open.

"Let's go to the dungeon tomorrow," I whispered, knowing that the snowman was not to see violence due to his innocence.

"Mhm. HI OLAF!"

We spent the rest of the day together. Olaf asked about Hiccup, seeing that he was told by other servants about his arrival but never having seen the person himself. We simply told him that he needed rest and could not be disturbed for a while.

The day progressed until it was time for dinner. When I walked into the dining room, I expected the Viking to be there already, but he was never there, until the time we finished dinner. He never showed up.

An hour and a half after dinner, I grew worried. I went to his room to check on him. I knocked on his door, and earned no response. The second time earned nothing as well. With as much gentleness as I could, I twisted the doorknob open, my eye scanning every single bit of the surroundings as I opened it slowly.

He was there, asleep, his back facing me.

Next to the door, a cart of food was there. I suppose a servant placed it here.

'I guess as long as the food is here, it's alright', I whispered to myself.

Gently, I closed the door and left with a better feeling, knowing that Hiccup was still there.

The next morning, I woke up and did my routine. I was no early bird, and I think a queen must be up and early to her people. I was still struggling, but I knew for a fact that Hiccup was an early bird… or dragon, in his case. So, I went to check for him again.

On my way, I walked past Gerda, the servant whom I knew very well. "Good morning, Gerda!"

"Good morning, my queen. Where are you going? The dining room is that way, you know," she joked.

"I just want to check on Hiccup, has he left the room by any chance?"

She pondered for a moment. "Not that I noticed. I don't think so."

Good lord. Has he not awakened yet?

"Okay… thank you. I'll check on him."

I hastened my phase to arrive at his room as quickly as possible. Once there, I gave the door a few knocks. No response. With ease, I opened the door to see Hiccup still in the same position as I left him last night.

I checked on the food cart, and his dinner was never touched.

"Hiccup?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Anna's POV**

I climbed onto his bed and nudged him on the back. No response. I nudged him the second time, this time it was more like a slap.

"Mmm…"

There he was.

"Hiccup? Wake up!"

He rolled his body to see me. He scrunched his eyes and let out one big yawn. Setting himself to sit on the bed, he looked at the windows and mumbled.

"It's still bright?..."

"Good morning to you too," I crossed my arms.

Within a dash, he turned to me with eyes very much open. "Morning?"

"You missed dinner, you are not going to miss breakfast as well," I grabbed his crutch to give it to him. "Come on."

His eyes rolled to the food cart by the door. "Was that dinner?"

"It was. There will be warmer food in the dining room."

He waved it off. "I don't mind cold food. I seriously don't. I don't want those to be wasted."

I pouted in disagreement. But he was right. Leftovers were no-go for me, so I pulled the food cart to the bed, close enough for him to sit on the edge and utilize the cart as a table. I opened the lid of the dish for him. It was a fish steak with some potatoes dressed with some cream.

"Happy eating!" I gave the Viking a smile.

He scooched closer to the cart. "You're not going to eat breakfast?" He asked, taking a bite of the fish.

"Hmm, I think I'll wait for you to finish," I replied. "I'm nowhere near as hungry as I usually am,"

"Are you on a diet?" He scoffed. The question surprised me a little. With my index finger, I pointed at him.

"You do _not_ ask a lady about her diet, Hiccup," I warned, giving him a bit of a pinch on the arm.

"Aw! Sorry!" He backed off a little, and fixed his position back to return to eat. I pulled some pillows and placed them behind my back to lay on them, while looking at the view outside of the windows.

"Say… what's with the long sleep? You must've slept for more than twelve hours," I asked with a concerned tone.

He stared at his food while having a thought. "I guess I was just really tired. While still kept on the ship, it's safe to say that I had a hard time dozing myself off to sleep. Well, I did have some sleep, but none of those were any comfortable ones. I kept having… dreams… of…" he dragged his sentence, and it didn't take an expert to say that he didn't want to mention about his tragedy.

"Right, okay," I reached for his shoulder to halt him. "I get it."

He glanced to me, giving a slight smile.

"Did you have a good sleep?" I asked.

He shrugged, but then he nodded down. "I did. Yeah, much better sleep than the ones I previously had."

His hesitance made me doubt a little, but I decided not to question about it any further.

"Though, I'd like to ask something, Anna," he used a handkerchief to clean his mouth before taking a sip of the water.

"What's up?" I asked.

Hiccup crossed his legs and faced me. "To be able to live inside a room this fancy… and to live under your care, I just can't do it. If I were to live as an Arendellian, I would like to work as one as well, and not live in the casle," he explained.

I was genuinely taken aback. "It's okay, Hiccup! It really is—"

"I insist, Anna. I'll… find a blacksmith and apply as worker there, and rent a room somewhere. There must be a place to rent a room, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, there is. But Hiccup," I approached him. "It's really okay, don't sweat it just because—"

"Anna. Stop."

His tone sounded stern, so I shut my mouth in defeat.

"Fine… if that's what you want, if it makes you feel better as well," I shrugged. "to which I hope that it does?"

"Yes," he said confidently. "It will make me feel better."

"Alright, let's find you a room at…" I looked at the clock on the wall. "Nine. Be prepared," I gave his back a friendly slap and jumped off the bed. "I'm going to prepare myself—"

"You're coming with me?" Hiccup asked.

I gave him that 'duh' look. "Of course, I know the kingdom better than you do, mister."

"I mean, don't you have… queenly stuff to work on?"

I rounded my mouth. "Oh. Nope. Today is one of those days where I give the whole kingdom a tour to see what's what. The work is not just in the office for this queen, I'm afraid," I toned my voice as proudly as possible. It colored him entertained.

"Right."

"Main courtyard at nine, be early."

I came to the spot earlier than him, dressed outgoing outfit with a bag strapped around me. In the meantime, I took out the object I had prepared for the Viking; a peg leg, very much looking like the one a pirate would put on, but the bottom end had a flat small board attached to it for better balance.

It was something I found lying around in the old toy box of my childhood. We would pretend we were pirates while launching each other 'cannonballs' in the form of mere snowballs. Now, pirates were no fun; a threat to everyone's safety. Gosh, adulthood.

"Hopefully it will fit though…" I spoke of my main concern. He was fairly skinny for a man of his age, but anything was possible.

"Anna!"

I turned around to the main entrance of the castle, and there my Viking was, coming out to the sunshine. "Hey!"

Hiccup immediately spotted the object that I held. "Oh, is that for me?"

"Oh no, I was about to chop my leg off for the sake of equality—"

Geez, Anna. Cut the sass.

I looked up, and his face looked like it suspected nothing. Maybe he didn't hear my sass. Good.

"Um, yeah!" I approached him, "let me put it on for you."

I knelt down and pulled the floating left end of his trouser to find the end of his left leg. Right away, my eyes widened at the 'remaining' of his left leg. Safe to say that I was not prepared for the moment, as I've never seen someone missing an arm before other than Olaf.

Nervously gulping, I placed the peg leg on his leg. It fitted!

"Right," I stood up, "test flight. Let me take that…" I took his crutch away gently.

He merely stood there perfectly. Even he himself found it confusing.

"Seems good so far," he commented. He did some tippy-tap, and took a few steps forward and backward. While walking, he looked a bit awkward, as if he had something in his pants that needed to be pulled out.

"Walking will take some time to get adjusted to," he turned around to me. "But I will treasure this forever. At least it will ease the process of making the prosthetic at the blacksmith."

"I suppose," I nodded down in agreement. "Let's go. I've prepared the horse."

With that, I led the Viking to the stable where the royal horses were kept. Once I spotted my very favorite horse, I called for his name, "Molly!"

The horse noticed my call and neighed in excitement. I opened his stable and gave him a rub by the neck before gesturing to Hiccup to climb up.

"Here goes nothing…" He cracked his knuckles and sprung upwards as high as he could. First attempt was a failure, and so was the second time. The third time, I pushed him up by the bottom to give an extra boost, and third time was indeed the charm.

"There you go… Hup!" I jumped onto the horse and commanded to go forward.

And then I realized something.

"Hiccup! You've never ridden a horse, right?" I asked with a small laugh.

He shook his head. "No!"

"Hya!" I gave Molly a gentle kick to accelerate, and he did. Right away, Hiccup circled his arms around me, clinging to his dear life. We galloped through the castle gate on a speed so fast, I was sure one of the guards warned me from a distance to slow down. However, the sky was open, and it would be a waste not to goof around.

Once we crossed the bridge, it was time to slow down. I pulled the harness to signal the horse to do so. Once slowed down, my back sensed a beating, and my ears heard heavy panting, which could only mean one thing.

"Hiccup, the dragon rider, scared while riding a horse?" I let my sass loose, looking at him. Hiccup let go of me and slightly slapped me by the shoulder.

"It's been _years_ since I last had a flight, Anna," he desperately tried to catch his absent breath. The sight was too good not to laugh at, so I laughed my lungs out.

I ended my laughter by clearing my throat. "I had to, I'm sorry."

"Sure you are," he gave a friendly push.

I glanced to him, giving him a dirty smirk. "It's the closest experience I can ever get to riding Toothless," I chuckled. "Well, of course, I do not get the heights, hence I do not get the _views_ and the _adrenaline_ and the _rush_ and the _wind on my hair_ … at least I get the speed, a tiny fraction of it."

"Yeah… I agree. Say, where are we heading to?" He asked.

"The dock. Need to check on the fishermen and the shipments. Need to make sure everything is sufficient—"

"Hello Queen Anna!"

"My queen! Good morning!"

"Queen Anna!"

I was greeted from multiple directions, so I had to smile and wave for a moment. However, more was to come considering I was going through a street where there were activities.

"You're pretty famous," he commented.

I raised a brow. "Is that sarcastic or—"

He pondered for a moment, and gave himself a slap by the forehead. "I—you're the queen, yeah, queen-famous."

What a dork.

As Molly made his way along the street, I kept waving to people who gave me greetings. It's always heartwarming to see my people spreading positivity like this; of course, not everyone was the positivity-spreader type of kind. But if it were to put into a comparison, the amount of nice people out here beat the amount of, let's say, less nice people by a mile. So, stumbling upon someone who was less kind was once in a blue moon.

"Oooo, Queen Anna, picking up a suitor already?" A woman called with a flirtatious tone.

Talk about the devil. I wanted to sass her, but I had to maintain my image as a queen.

"No, Ma'am. Just trying to find a lad a new home," I replied.

"Oh! I have a room; this is my inn!" She pointed at the building behind her. I signaled Molly to stop.

It was decent in size, and across the building itself, a blacksmith, as it happened. I looked to Hiccup, tilting my head.

"We can check it later. Let's do your errands first," he replied. "It seems promising, if you ask me. There's a blacksmith across, it looks perfect."

"Aight, we'll come back to you later, Ma'am," I said.

"Your boyfriend will very much be in safe hands, I assure you that."

I slightly frowned at the statement, giving her a dirty look. Replying nothing, I signaled Molly to go.

Once again, along the way, I was greeted by more pedestrians. It really was a tiring job to keep a smile up throughout the journey. After several minutes, the dock finally came to sight, and I could finally let my facial muscles relax.

"Here we are, finally."

I stopped by a pole so I could keep Molly secure. I seamlessly dropped off the horse first, and signaled Hiccup to drop.

"I got you, come on," I extended my arms to soften his landing. After jumping, my hands caught him by the arms. He let out a small grunt.

"Oof, did it hurt?" I looked at his peg leg.

"A tiny bit. I'll have to place some padding in the slot later on," he tapped his peg leg against the ground. "But it's okay."

With that, I began my errands. I checked on every ship, every boat, every captain, and every fisherman. With my notebook, I wrote down every important thing I learned along the way, mainly in form of numbers of profit, loss, those stuff. Never did I ever forget to cheer every single man and woman involved in this part of the kingdom's economy, for I knew how much of a dangerous place the sea was.

Hiccup himself was engaging throughout my survey; he gave tips to many fishermen and sailors, reminded the wind pattern of the ocean, and more. For someone who has flown a lot in his life, Hiccup was very experienced as well with the water.

"You sure are one experienced sailor as well," I commented as I carefully walked down the wooden plank to get off the ship I was on.

"One needs to explore the sea as well, not just the sky. The fish swim in the water, not on the air," he replied.

"You sounded pretty wise for a moment, did your head hit something?" I snorted, hopping onto the dock.

"Funny—"

"Right," I placed my hands on my hips. "Now we go to the field to check on the crops."

"Is there another one after that?"

"Um… several, actually. The local shops, the farms, the ice harvester…" I named more and more things to see his reaction, and I saw exactly what I wanted.

"Oh goodness, there sure are plenty," he let out a sigh.

I curled a smile on my lips, a victorious one. "Got you. The ones after the ice harvesters were made up. I'm still a human being, you know."

His face brightened. "Oh. Haha. Right, let's get going."

* * *

"Excuse me, do you know what time it is?"

"Oh, your majesty! Uhh… honey? What time is it now?" The man called for his wife inside the house.

"Almost half to ten! Why?" Her wife replied from inside the house.

"Nothing! Half to ten, your majesty. You should come back to the castle, it's not safe," the husband warned.

"I'm on my way," I pulled the harness on Molly to signal him to go. "Thank you."

Hiccup and I had been tirelessly wandering around in the kingdom for more than twelve hours, surveying every corner of the kingdom because as a queen, I felt that I was obliged to. Yes, my servants are to give me report every day, but sometimes, seeing things from the naked eyes assure me more than the numbers did.

Besides, it's an excuse for me to have fun outside as well. And with Hiccup by my side, today has been amazing. Having him as today's companion reminded me of how much of a good man he was, how much of a funny person he was, lovable as well, and how much he didn't deserve whatever happened in his homeland.

You could say that cheering the guy up had been a side-quest as well throughout the day as I progressed with my survey. I did use my sass occasionally, but it turned out to be an okay device to make him smile, though it might not be really appropriate to sass someone who had gone through a lot within one night. However, he smiled, heck, he laughed!

"There's the inn," I spoke.

"I think I might as well spend the night there, Anna. Give it a test flight as well right away, you know," he suggested. I turned to see his face.

"The only thing you'll be testing is the bed, you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure! I mean, people spend many hours on the bed throughout their lives. Though it sounds not so important, a comfortable bed is a great investment in your life," he explained. I could only shake my head while smiling.

"I can't believe you just made sleeping sound scientific, when it's very much my hobby," I said.

"Hahaha…"

We stopped in front of the inn, and the madam, the owner of the place, was just about to flip the open sign to close from behind the door. We were right on time.

"Ma'am? Can we still rent a room?" I asked immediately.

She looked up to me through the window of her door. Her face brightened, and she opened the door right away. "Oh, your majesty! Yes, you still can!"

"Alright, thank you! Molly, stay."

We both hopped off Molly and walked our way to the entrance of the inn. The main lobby was lit by the candles placed on the walls and the chandelier on the ceiling. Aside that, there weren't much, but the walls had lovely patterns to which I was sure they were hand drawn. The interior screamed simplicity.

"Welcome to Olsen's~" the woman greeted, walking to the counter. "A room for two, your majesty?"

I raised a brow. "Oh, no. Just for him, and he is going to live here for a while," I explained. "You may send the bill to the castle, I will handle it."

"Aww, that's a shame," no it isn't, woman. "Very well, a room for the scruffy man. What is your name?" She readied a pen.

"Hiccup Haddock," he answered.

The woman briefly snickered, writing down the name on her book. "Hiccup… Haddock… Very well. What kind of room would you like?"

"The cheapest one," he replied.

"You sure? I seriously don't mind, Hiccup," I asked with hesitance. "Who knows how the cheapest one really is."

"We're about to find out," he smiled reassuringly.

Lady Olsen took us to the upper floor where the room was. After passing several doors, she stopped at one at the very end of the corridor. With her key, she unlocked it and let us in.

"Single bed, the bathroom is over there, a wardrobe, a table, a chair, a mirror, a fireplace, a compartment. The window giving a view to the fjord is free, as it is available in every room," Lady Olsen casually explained. I hung my bag on the coat hanger behind the door to inspect the room corner to corner. For something labeled as the cheapest room there was, I was rather okay with it. And I imagined if I was okay with this, Hiccup would be,

"Perfect. I'll have this one."

"Deal, it is… I'll send you the bill later, Queen Anna," she said.

"Please do. Thank you," I nodded.

She left the room, leaving the two of us alone. "You sure you're okay?"

"Mhm. It kind of resembles my old house, to be frank," he replied.

I stick my bottom lip out. "If it really does, I suppose that's a good thing."

He walked to the mirror to see himself, and proceeded to fix his hair nonchalantly in the silence. I snuck from behind and wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him.

"I'll see you later, yeah?" I asked.

He turned around to return the hug. "Sure thing."

We remained like this for a few seconds until the two of us started coughing in unison, pulling away from each other.

"You need a shower," we spoke to each other in unison. We proceeded to laugh about it for a moment. I ended my laughter before him, and watched him continuing it. Joy filled my heart to see him like this.

"Alright, I have to go. Everybody must be looking for me," I walked to the door, grabbing the handle to shut it.

"Hahah… Right, yeah. Good night, Anna." He bid.

My smile for him grew wider. "Good night, Hiccup."

I shut the door gently, and rushed my way down the stairs. I bid Lady Olsen farewell before exiting the inn. Once hopping on Molly, he galloped to the castle.

Luckily, the street was empty, allowing me to speed along it without having the need to bother the pedestrians. It merely took me a minute or so to reach the bridge, but then I realized something absent.

"MY BAG!"

I cursed under my breath and pulled the harness on Molly to slow down. I turned around and rushed my way back to the Olsen's Inn. The trip took the same amount of time.

Once there, I hopped off to see nobody at the counter. I peeked through the window, but Lady Olsen was nowhere to be seen. I knocked the door several times and called for the lady. I earned no response. That's when I decided to try the handle, and to my surprise, it was unlocked.

"Oh."

I walked my way back to the upper floor, through the same corridor to Hiccup's room. I stopped at my track when I saw Lady Olsen planting her ear by Hiccup's door.

"Lady Olsen, what are you doing?"

She looked to me and her eyes widened. "My queen! Why are you here again?"

"I forgot I left my bag in his room. I came to get it back," I approached her.

"My queen! I heard glass shatter from this door, but it's locked. I fear something has happened!"

Oh no.

I shoved her away from the door and tried twisting the door handle. It's locked tight.

"Hiccup?!"

I tried barging the door with my shoulder, but it would not budge.

"Help me! Come on!" I told the lady, and we readied ourselves in a position.

"On three. One, two, three!"

We charged, and it still wouldn't budge.

"Three!"

No luck.

"THREE!"

The third time's charm resulted in me kissing the floor after using force to open the door. I looked up and I saw horror. Hiccup, lying on the floor, his back facing us. I quickly got up to check on him.

"Hiccup—OH!"

Blood, flowing from his slit wrist. He was holding a piece of glass which was from the mirror on the wall, very much shattered into pieces.

"HICCUP!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Hiccup's POV**

_SMACK!_

My knuckles bled right away after contacting with the mirror hard. Due to the pain, my muscles immediately made my hand shake, but I had to endure it, for a greater pain was still to come. A pain to end it all, to pay for a greater pain; my burden. It was a small price for an end to all of this.

I took one sharp piece of the mirror. My eyes inspected it from every angle. While doing so, I caught my own eye in the reflection, and saw nothing but a failure in a human being. I despised myself.

That's why I closed my eyes afterwards and spent no more time. I placed the sharp edge of the mirror piece on my right wrist and cut it.

"Arrghh!—"

I hissed in pain, but then it hit me.

It's over.

I locked the door, no one was to going to come to see me. I dropped on my knees, and soon, my entire weight collapsed. I curled into a fetal position; the pain was still there, but it's a salvation. It was to end something greater. And it made me smile.

Goodbye Anna, Elsa. I'm sorry.

* * *

I sensed something.

Are we supposed to sense something in afterlife?

I picked up a smell.

It's familiar. Like I was here not long ago.

My eyes peeled open, and immediately, I sensed something wrong.

My eyes opened.

I gasped deeply, jolting upwards. I was in my room. In the castle. That Anna told me to stay in.

I inspected my hands, and there it was, my right wrist, completely enveloped in a patch.

"W-Why…"

My entire being was filled with irritation right away. I tried scratching off the patch with my nails, which didn't quite work. I used my teeth next, and it seemed to be the better solution as I managed to rip off one strand of the patch. However, there had to be a better solution.

I got up from the bed to search for any sharp object in the drawers, the wardrobe, anywhere. While doing so, I kept my teeth on the patching. In a hurry, I pulled off some drawers and dug my hand to sense for anything sharp. Nothing. I pulled off the next drawer and actually threw it onto the floor due to my excess force. I dug my hand into it again, nothing.

"Dammit—"

_Creak…_

I looked to the door, and there Anna was, stood in her mouth rounded.

"H-Hiccup? You're awake! What are you doing—"

My teeth were still on my right wrist, and that answered her question right away. She rushed over to my sight to pull my right hand off of my teeth.

"Hiccup! S-Stop!"

I pulled my hand back to myself, pushing her away in the process. "Go away Anna! Let me do what I want for once in my life!"

"Killing yourself?! You want to kill yourself?!" She asked, anger sounding in her tone.

"YES!" I stood up, digging my nails into right wrist. "I-It's too much for me! I can't live with this burden—they're all DEAD! My friends, my family," my eyes began to feel watery, "So please! Just let me end this—"

Before I could even finish my sentence, she approached me and pulled my hands apart so that I would stop opening the patch up. I grunted, and pushed her off with all of my force into the wardrobe.

She hit the wardrobe hard, but I didn't care at all. My nails were useless against the patch, so I looked around again for anything to pry it open, and my eyes stopped at the food cart. There was food on it.

I opened the lid, and there was the perfect tool for the job; a fork. I took it, and dived it into the patch.

Before it could land, a hand stopped it midair.

Elsa.

"S-Stop this, Hiccup…"

I gritted my teeth. I attempted to push her away, but she was quicker than me. Elsa froze both of my hands, entrapping them in one giant block of ice each. The weight of both of these blocks was too much, I was brought onto my knees instantly.

I looked up to the her furiously, and she frowned at me back. However, something else caught her attention, something more important.

"Anna!"

She scurried over to her sister, who was hiding her face from me. When Elsa lifted her face, I gasped at the sight.

Anna had a cut on her right temple, and from it flowed a small stream of blood.

"A-Anna…" I breathed.

Elsa used her dress to wipe the blood away, and used her power to seal the wound. "This won't last long, you'd better patch it up properly this time," she warned.

I tried standing up, but the ice was too heavy for me. "Anna! Are you hurt?!"

She got up and walked to the door, not before giving me a slap by the cheek. Afterwards, she left the room.

The slap froze me. I never saw it coming.

In a sudden, I sensed no more weight on my hands. Elsa lifted off her magic, and the ice disappeared.

"We need to talk," Elsa said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"… About what…"

"Hiccup…" she sighed. "Please, give me a chance. Sit."

I turned around to her, and saw sternness in her face, and pity too. Only before a sigh did I stand up and sit next to her. I was still taken aback by the slap, so my eyes never looked at Elsa's.

"Hiccup… We love you very much, Anna and I. I feel your loss, heck… I can relate why you'd like to commit suicide to end all of the burden. I myself can't imagine if one day, all of my people are gone within one single night, one single night!" She reached for my shoulder and pressed it.

"But this is not what your people would've wanted. They would've wanted their chief to be strong, to keep on going."

I rolled my eyes up to her. "It's always what they want, right? Never about what _I_ want."

She sighed. "Yes. One of many occupational hazards of being a leader. It's always about them, never about you, sadly. But they chose you for a reason, it's because they believed in you."

I teared up once again, looking away, "Which led them to their deaths—your point?"

"I…" Elsa covered her face and broke down, her sobs sounding from behind her hands. Now we have two crying adults in the room.

I looked away into the floor, finding it more interesting than the sight of Elsa crying. However, she then uncovered her face, facing me with the sternness that she previously had, only not as stern as it was.

"A-Anna carried you out of the inn while keeping pressure on your wound, Hiccup. Later, while getting off her horse, she lost balanced, landing on the ground with her right foot first. Her ankle was sprained after that."

I looked up to Elsa.

"You nearly reached the point where your heartbeat was no longer there because of excessive loss of blood, but my sister gave you her blood. And it was _plenty_ of blood, I'm telling you," she used her index finger to emphasize Anna's heroism. "If it weren't for her speeding on Molly and for her own blood, you wouldn't be here, Hiccup. You were out for five days, and during those five days, Anna's routine has been nothing but doing her duty while keeping up with less blood in her body and a sprained ankle, and checking on you on every moment she could get. _Every. Moment_. Even if it means only for a brief second. And every night, she slept on the couch, _that_ couch!" She pointed to the couch next to the door.

"Hiccup," Elsa scooted closer to me. "You have a special spot in her heart. Yes, it is selfish to think that you should live with all this burden, but you have a duo of sisters looking up to you! Me! And Anna! And we are willing to help you heal."

Her story was something I had to process for a while. So, I looked to the floor again.

"Anna… really did all of those?" I asked under my breath, examining my hands. Anna's blood was flowing inside these hands, _inside me!_

"Yes."

Elsa's words were not convincing enough, to be frank. But they were enough to make feel sorry, to realize how much of a dick move it was to attempt to kill myself again after what Anna had done for the sake of my survival.

"I would like to… apologize to her, I guess…" I spoke softly. Elsa patted me on the back, standing up.

"You should, but you should wash yourself first. And…" she grabbed both of my wrists and enveloped them with a layer of ice.

"I can't trust you yet… I'm sorry…" she let got of me.

I could only nod down. It was the correct move from her not to trust me yet.

* * *

I knocked on her office, the room I was told she was in. No response. The second time I knocked, a "come in" replied. It was her.

I opened and looked up to her, my heart skipping a beat. When she discovered it was me, she lost grip of her feather pen. I could see her shaking.

I slowly made my way to her desk after closing the door, realizing the patch on her right temple. As I was getting closer, tears were already forming up in her eyes, and some found their ways to the paperwork on her desk. It pained me to see her like this, but I had to face it.

"… I'm sorry…"

She remained sat, staring into my eyes deeply. That's the moment when I sensed something similar when I looked into her eyes. Something reminiscent of the past, the _bitter_ past.

Her eyes… somehow perfectly represented, no, copied the eyes of my people right after I turned myself in. I saw their eyes, begging for me for a shard of hope which I failed to give.

For once… I didn't want to fail this time. I didn't want to fail to give hope to Anna… just because her eyes screamed for hope.

Anna didn't speak or anything for a moment. Her teeth remained gritted, palms clenched hard, and tears flowing nonstop while staring into my eyes. Her eyes were torturing to see, as they genuinely reminded me of the past because of its similarity. So, I looked down.

"Elsa told me everything… I-I was too much of a jerk, I'll admit that… I'm s-sorry, it was just too—"

Without even knowing that she had stood up, I was enveloped by her tight warm hug. Her face was buried in my chest, only to proceed to sob more and more.

I wrapped my arms around her to return the hug. I kissed her hair to express my gratitude before burying my face in it. My hands ran up and down her back to soothe her. Soon, I sensed her arms tightening the hug.

"Anna… thank you. For saving my life."

"Ufft…Iwasso…waahhhHHHH!—" she lightly punched my chest, but returned to crying afterwards. Her response was something I could never make out.

"* _Sniffels*…_ Dunyoudhare * _sobs*_ doingitegen…"


	7. Chapter 7

**Hiccup's POV**

"I sure do miss the flights… it's one of those things that I always look forward to whenever a shipment from Berk arrives. Though, yes, it disappointed me several times that you sometimes were not present with the shipment…" Anna explained nonchalantly, then noticed that she did it nonchalantly in the next moment.

"Did I just say that out loud?" Her cheeks reddened a little.

"You're saying that you miss me? Or just Toothless?" I smirked challengingly. She proceeded to laugh it off.

"Both," she smirked. "A real shame that all dragons are now off to the Edge of the World… how far is it from New Berk? How does it look like?"

I fixed my sitting position on the couch, as if I was her father about to tell his story about how he had it in the past. "Well… it's… several hours of flight away from New Berk. If we were to travel by boat, it would probably take a week or more. It's sat on the east of New Berk. As father explained, no sailors had ever returned to tell the tale of how the place even looks like, and once I arrived there on Toothless, I could see why; the entrance of the place was one giant circular hole on the ocean, seawater pouring down into it. Of course, no ships ever made it back; they were pulled by the torrential current!"

She gasped, added with her widened eyes, Anna was so into my story right now.

"When I descended into the entrance, it was magical. Materials that no man has ever seen, lights illuminating from everywhere, I can't even explain; it was magical, the perfect haven for the dragons."

"Wow…" she breathed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't really explain much, did I?" I chuckled uneasily.

"I too sometimes find it hard to describe things, especially when I'm in awe," she shook it off. "You've never… tried to visit it after a few years?"

I shook my head. "Nope. But perhaps one day."

"Take me? And Elsa? And Olaf?"

I looked at her to determine just how serious she was, and she completely seemed so. Her eyes screamed curiosity that one could barely satisfy. "… Sure."

The queen punched the air. "Yes!"

I looked away with a smile, stopping my rolling eyes onto that very pile of paperwork that we had just done nonstop.

"Hey…" Anna called. I turned to her, and she was looking at the same pile of paper as well. "Thanks for helping me out with those… paperwork. Never knew you were pretty good at it, no offense."

"I never knew as well," I shrugged. "I mean, same concept, you run a land of people, you choose what's best for your people like any other leaders do… Though in Berk, maybe we're… less organized?"

"Berk looked very magnificent for something that is 'less organized' than Arendelle," Anna commented. The comment made me scratch my hair sheepishly, turning my sight to the window on my right. Oh, sunset.

"Can't believe how time flies—"

The door of the office abruptly opened by itself, revealing former queen of Arendelle herself. "Anna, I'm sorry, I was stuck with some—"

Elsa stopped in the middle of her sentence when she laid her eyes onto the finished pile of paperwork on the table. She was taken aback for a moment, mouth gaping widely.

"You finished all of it?" She walked in, "without me?"

"With the help from Hiccup," Anna gestured at me. "He helped me a lot. He's pretty good with the papers, it turns out."

"I did," I confessed.

Elsa's bottom lip stuck out, giving a seal of approval with her expression that said 'not bad'. "That's… amazing."

I crossed my legs, straightening my back, wanting to propose an idea. "I'll be Anna's assistant for now, it's my turn now."

Hearing the idea, Elsa placed her hands on her hips, looking a bit unsure with it. "You sure, Hicc? I seriously don't mind leaving Northuldra for a longer while," she approached me.

"Being the fifth spirit sounds like a heavy job that you can't really leave," I said, shrugging. "I mean, whatever it is that you do," I slipped out a snort. Anna couldn't help but to slip one as well. Seeing the two of us behaving as so, Elsa crossed her arms.

"Haha, jokes aside," I stood up to express my seriousness and cleared my throat. "It's the least that I can do. Let me help."

The fifth spirit judged me for a second. Being judged by Elsa was not the best feeling to date.

"Okay, Hiccup. I mean," she gestured at the table where the paperwork was. "It's pretty self-evident that you're good with the papers. Or even, better than Anna," she gave a dirty look to her sister.

"Hey!"

Elsa snapped a finger out of the blue, and the ice plating on my arms disappeared into the thin air. I shoved my hands together generate some warmth.

"Thanks… It was really unbearable… the cold…" I admitted. Her eyes widened, as if she never realized that ice is cold.

"I forgot about that, sorry. Well," she gave a hand to her sister, gesturing her to stand up. After doing as so, Elsa gave us a big hug, which we returned warmly. She moved about while tightening the hug, toying the hug around.

"Off to Northuldra I go," she let go. "Take care, alright?"

"We will," Anna and I replied in unison.

 _"_ _Awwhhh—"_ the big sis pulled us for another hug which we could only laugh at. "I'm gonna find Olaf now before leaving, kay?"

With that, she left the two of us alone. We merely stared at the door for a brief moment, not knowing of what to do. But then I remembered something.

"Erhm, Anna," I called. "It's about to be late, I'll take you to the dining room, and I'll be off, okay?"

"Off to where?" She raised a brow.

"Off… to home. My room, in the village."

She sighed deeply, "Hiccup, you can stay here—"

"I can't, okay? Nothing can change that, at least not anytime soon."

She crossed her arms in annoyance, "Why are you so persistent? Gee."

I shrugged. "I'm a Viking," I nudged her side a little.

She pondered for a moment, looking like she was judging me. Being judged by either Elsa or Anna was never a good feeling.

"… Can I still trust you?"

"… On what?"

"Don't act like you do not know, Hiccup…" She gently took my hand and placed a finger on my right wrist, which was wrapped with a patch. Her eyes rolled up to mine. I soon understood what she meant.

"I will come back to the castle tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on. If I don't one day, you may send a search party and we'll play hide and seek."

"HICCUP!"

I froze a little at it. "I-I'm joking! I will go here to help you with your work."

"You'd better do," she warned me with a finger.

* * *

Fifteen days later.

Anna's recovery has been speedy, and it was the most relieving thing to see. Seeing her getting more and more bubbly each day really gave me something to live for, a reason to keep on living… other than the fact that I was in debt for her, since she had given me her blood. I guess, I would not like to leave off life with an unpaid debt until it is paid.

The thought of suicide was still there in my mind, but its frequency was not as horrible compared in the early days. I still missed my people, my family, my friends, and nothing could ever replace them. However, Anna's bubbliness had kept my chin up most of the times. Even at times when I was randomly looking at the window to the fjord, pondering of Berk, she knew that my mind was thinking of the past. How? Nobody knew. All I knew was that she would at least lay a hand on my shoulder to rub it, emphasizing the message that it would be alright.

Tonight, I finished the same work as always. I went home to my usual inn, the Olsen's. I grew fond with Lady Olsen, although I scared her dear life when I attempted to commit suicide in her inn. As always, she greeted me from the counter when I arrived and asked me if I had dinner or not. Not that she would give me any food whatsoever though.

I walked into my room and sat on the bed. For some reason, I was not so tired. Usually, the walk from the castle would tire me the most, and my mind would drive me to sleep right away. But tonight was different.

I looked to the window that gave a view to the fjord. It's always the mesmerizing view, the fjord.

"Maybe I ought to give it a closer look," I spoke to myself.

Commanded by none other than myself, I went out of the inn and walked my way to the dock. It was not the shortest walk, per se. During day, I would take one of the royalty horses to go to places in the village, but they were not _my_ horses. So, once I came home, I only had one leg to travel around with.

The dock was lonely, almost dead. No one was seen in the area, only ships and boats parked. However, the silence was lovely; full moon, a sea of stars, and the sound of the waves gently washing against the dock. Peace was defined in the moment.

I walked my way to the closest point I could get to the fjord on the dock. At the end of the walkway, I sat on the edge and feasted these eyes with mother nature's masterpiece.

It never lasted as long as I expected, as I heard a horse behind me from a distance.

Anna?

"Anna? What are you doing in here?" I asked. She got off Molly, holding what seemed to be… oh, my notebook.

"You left your notebook in the office, Hiccup," she gently smiled, approaching me. The queen sat right next to me and gave me the object.

"I would've just grabbed it again tomorrow, you know. I regularly visit the castle to work," I placed the notebook away. She smiled cheekily.

"Thought it was a valuable possession of yours," she excused. "And… I just wanted to see you. We were so busy with the papers, we barely talked about anything else."

I scoffed at her. "Right. How did you know I was here?"

"Lady Olsen told me."

"Ah, yeah, of course."

"What are you doing in here, mister? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?" Anna asked with a playful tone.

"I wasn't sleepy yet. And the fjord is beautiful tonight."

She looked at the view, "… it is."

We remained silent for a moment, doing nothing but enjoying the view. Once again, the silence was broken by Anna who cleared her throat.

"Hiccup, I think this is the right moment to tell you this…" she placed one leg on the dock to face me. Her serious expression earned my curiosity right away. I shifted to her, opening all ears.

"While you were out, we int—"

A flapping noise sounded from afar. I focused my hearing on it.

I raised a finger to halt the queen, "Anna, sorry. Listen."

Needless to say, that she wondered why I halted her, but then, her expression changed as she heard the same flapping noise. We both turned to every direction to find the source of the noise and stopped when we looked at the full moon up above. A tiny shadow was spotted flying. It had wings, a snake-like body, and had four legs.

Could it be?

"BLUE!" I called and whistled to gain its attention. After a few attempts, the shadow slowly became bigger and bigger, signing the arrival of it.

Soon, it landed right in front of us. It was indeed, Blue the messenger Terrible Terror!

"Blue!" Anna and I spoke in unison.


	8. Chapter 8

**Anna's POV**

Fifteen days later.

It's true. Hiccup has been keeping his promise well, to always come to help me with my duty.

I seriously had my doubts, and I still do; what if one day he never comes to work? What if his sarcastic joke about me sending a search party to search for him comes true? I know it's selfish, in a way, to demand him to live life with that amount of burden on his shoulders. It's also his choice as well if he would like to end it, and to be completely frank, I cannot come up with a good reason for him to continue living on life other than it would destroy me.

But right now, it's looking good, though I still make sure by looking out of the window to the main gate every time he leaves, making sure that he's headed to the right direction. Insecurities, you know?

Today's work has been a pain. We barely had time to let out some steam off, and we were late for dinner. Well, Hiccup went home without having dinner just because it was so late.

After I finished dinner, Olaf suddenly stopped me on my track to my room.

"Anna, isn't this Hiccup's?"

The snowman handed me a notebook. It was so distinct, it could only belong to a Viking, and the only Viking in Arendelle would be none other than Hiccup.

"It is, Olaf. I'll hand it to him tomorrow, thank you!"

"You'd better do, seems private and valuable," he turned around and walked away.

"You haven't been reading it, have you, Olaf?" I smirked.

"Nuh uh! Why would I do that?"

Silly snowman.

I looked at the notebook, and curiosity immediately grew inside me. At first, I pulled my fingers away slightly when I was about to open it. However, my curiosity defeated me. I opened the first page, and frowned immediately.

"They're in runes… Of course."

The writings were in runes, which only a Viking could decipher. I ran through all the pages and discovered nothing written in normal alphabets, though I must admit that the runes colored me interested to learn about them.

Maybe I should return it right away.

Why? Because I can.

With that, I made my way to the stable to take Molly out after putting some warm clothes on. Of course, in my way, guards and servants questioned my motivation, and worried over me for going out so late. However, I could convince them easily since I've gone to several dangerous adventures previously.

Having arrived at the inn within minutes, I dropped off to see Lady Olsen by the door.

"Looking for Hiccup?" She asked right away. I nodded.

"He's gone to the dock few minutes ago."

Huh, the dock?

"Thank you, Lady Olsen," I hopped on Molly and set off again. Why would he be at the dock this late? Is there something at the dock that is so urgent or interesting to look at right now?

And then _that_ very thought occurred in my mind, suicide. I gasped at the thought in horror, but then I scolded myself to keep a positive mindset. Maybe the guy is in the need for fresh air, that's all.

Once there, I scanned the surroundings, the very _lonely_ surroundings. The wind sent a chill up through my spine, so I pulled my coat close.

Later, I spotted him sitting on the edge of a walkway. I dropped off my horse, and right away, he noticed my arrival.

"Anna? What are you doing in here?" He asked.

"You left your notebook in the office, Hiccup," I smiled, sitting down next to him after coming over to him.

"I would've just grabbed it again tomorrow, you know. I regularly visit the castle to work," he placed the object away. I smiled cheekily.

"Thought it was a valuable possession of yours. And… I just wanted to see you. We were so busy with the papers, we barely talked about anything else," I admitted while smiling cheekily.

Hiccup scoffed. "Right. How did you know I was here?"

"Lady Olsen told me."

"Ah, yeah, of course."

"What are you doing in here, mister? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?" I asked playfully

"I wasn't sleepy yet. And the fjord is beautiful tonight," he looked up to the view. Indeed, the night was particularly beautiful.

"… it is."

My eyes rolled at every object there was in the view; the fjord, the mountains, the water, the stars, the moon. My skin sensed the cold wind, though it was almost unbearable, it was relaxing. Enjoying the view from the balcony of the castle is sure nice, but being _in_ the view is a whole different experience.

I stole a look at Hiccup, and discovered his smile. I could tell that his soul was at peace.

Perhaps, it is time to tell him this.

"Hiccup, I think this is the right moment to tell you this…" I sat one leg on the dock to face him. He turned to me to pay attention to what I had to tell.

"While you were out, we interrogated the crew members of the ship that imprisoned—"

He raised a finger to halt me, "Anna, sorry. Listen."

I frowned at him for being rude, but then a noise caught my ears. It sounded… flapping? A bird, perhaps? I looked up to the sky for any sign of winged living being, and one caught my eyes right away. I saw a pair of wings, four legs… birds only have two legs, right?

Could it be?

"BLUE!" Hiccup called. We both had the same idea of who the flying creature might be! After a few attempts, the shadow slowly became bigger and bigger, signing the arrival of it. We stood up to welcome it.

Soon, it landed right in front of us. It was indeed, Blue the messenger Terrible Terror!

"Blue!" Hiccup and I spoke in unison.

Blue the Terrible Terror dragon seemed excited to see the two of us together, as it tippy-tapped the dock with excitement. It didn't take long until it jumped into Hiccup's arms, and into mine next. It stayed in my arms for a while, panting its lungs out. I ran my hands on the dragon's back up and down.

"Aww… it seems tired, Hiccup," I said. "Maybe one of those barrels has some fish in it," I eyed at the barrels near us.

"Right away, milady."

Hiccup went to check the barrels. I sat down on the dock again, and the dragon curled itself on my lap, finding it comfortable to sleep on. The sight melted my heart, the poor dragon must've been flying for so long.

"Sleep, little guy… oh?"

My eyes spotted a scroll of paper tied onto one of the dragon's hind legs. I pulled it and undid the scroll.

I gasped in as many air as I could.

"HICCUP!" I called for the Viking.

"What?" His response sounded echo-y. When I looked at him, his upper half was inside a barrel, most likely trying to reach for something inside it.

"LOOK AT THIS!" I shook the paper.

"Be right there…" His upper half emerged from the barrel with two fish in his hand. Once he looked at the paper I held, his brow furrowed.

"What's that?"

"A message! It's in runes!"

His green eyes bulged. "What—"

Hiccup placed the fish right next to the dragon, in which its scent immediately drew the dragon from its slumber. It walked off my lap to feast on the fish. I gave Hiccup the paper for him to read it.

I watched his eyes reading the runes, from one end to the other, I followed the movement. Seconds later, they became watery, a smile curling on his mouth. Before I could even ask what the letter said, he pulled me into a hug.

"I-It's…" he stuttered, nearly whispering on my ear.

"What is it, Hicc?" I patted his back.

"It's mother!... She's out there, with survivors!"

The news shocked me; I almost couldn't believe it. Hence, I pulled away from the hug to look at him in the eyes, and they screamed joy and happiness.

"H-Hiccup!" I hugged him again.

We remained like this for a few moments, both of us using each other's shoulders to bury our faces. Hiccup was sobbing of joy, and so was I. I was so happy for him. There really couldn't be better news. Soon, I shifted my face up to see Blue, who looked confused at the two of us. I merely giggled at the dragon's innocence.

Hiccup pulled away from the hug, but our arms remain connected to each other. "I-It reads…" Hiccup read the letter for me.

"Dear Hiccup,

I sincerely hope that this letter finds you at some point. It turned out, not all dragons have gone to the Edge of the World. Blue, this dragon which I'm sure plays the messenger role between Berk and Arendelle, is one twelve Terrible Terrors that we found in Old Berk. We sent these dragons with a letter attached to each to twelve different directions to search for you.

I want to inform you that some of us survived the raid. We are now sheltering in Old Berk, continuing life with a hope that the raiders do not find us. If it is possible, please, find us.

Your mother, Valka."

I smiled and breathed a "wow". "That is the best news… ever… Old Berk, does she mean old archipelago?"

"It has to be. I wonder how it looks like now. But for now, I need a map, a paper, I need to do some math and logistic!" He cracked his fingers.

"Right now?" I asked.

"Yes. Not in the morning, not in the dawn, right now," he replied.

I smiled at his fiery soul. He radiated positivity like never before, and it was a pleasant sight to enjoy. "Hm, to my office then!"

* * *

My hand carefully placed the end of the candle on the fire on the old candle, and replaced the old one with the new one. I could've had Blue to lit the candle on, but the dragon was sleeping fast on the couch of the room.

It was now into two o'clock in the morning, and the two of us have been up, calculating and preparing the logistics for the expedition to Old Berk.

One of the main factors that we had to consider was the time. Ships from Berk would usually be pulled by the dragon called Seashocker. With the help from the dragon, a ship carrying shipment would arrive faster than the one with no help from the dragon. That's why whenever a Berkian ship arrived with fur, two seashockers would usually be present but only one was used. The other one would be used to pull an Arendellian ship back to Berk to bring silver in return for the fur. Obviously, dragon power was absent in our situation, hence, traveling time would be significantly longer than usual. That also affected other things such as the amount of food to bring, equipment, and others.

However, we eventually arrived to a conclusion on a piece of paper with all of the preparations needed for the trip.

"It sounds… promising," I read the paper again.

Hiccup placed his pencil away, clicking his tongue in a proud manner. "This trip is a go, Anna. A go."

I placed the paper away and smiled at him. "Indeed."

He sat on the desk. "Are you sure we have to bring Elsa? I'm not sure if she could just leave the kingdom and Nothuldra alone."

"She would insist on coming along, Hiccup. Besides, she would want to protect us with her power," I replied.

"And you don't have to come—"

I cut him right away, raising a finger as a warning. "We're over that, Hiccup. I am coming, and that is final."

"The kingdom?"

"Kai will be in charge while I am absent. Besides, this also involves the safety of the kingdom as well… oh yes, and Hiccup," my own words reminded me of what I had to tell him and yet had done. "I need to tell you something."

"Yeah?"

I sat on the other end of the desk. "While you were out, my sister and I interrogated the crew of the Therondian ship. Prior to this, I did my own interrogation and failed miserably. This time, Elsa used her power to spit some words out from those men's mouths."

Him scooting closer to me was a sign of interest. "That's… weeks ago, why tell now?"

"The reason behind I waited for so long to tell you this is because you haven't healed enough, until now. I feared that you would come up with… unreasonably bad decisions for this situation. I'm sorry, but after I saw you being that close to death, you lost some of my trust, Hiccup. You seemed fine on the outside, but I never knew that you had _that_ kind of intention inside you. And that shocked me to death."

He sighed. "I'm… sorry."

I waved it off. "It's in the past. Anyway, we later learned that you were going to be sold at a human trafficking market."

His jaw dropped open. "Human… what?"

"A market where humans are sold. But, this specific market sells people with titles, or someone unique. They sell leaders from around the world, either kings, or queens, tribe leaders, chiefs, anyone!"

I earned no response or comment. Hiccup was practically frozen.

"Therondia apparently earn some of their earnings through this market. I don't know how and why actual humans would have high values that selling them could maintain a kingdom's economy. This is, I'm afraid, only the first out of two things that we learned from the interrogation. The next one might be scarier…" I warned.

He sat closer to me. "Tell me."

I stared into his eyes before telling him. "They somehow… know about the Edge of the World, Hiccup. And they are going for it."

Hiccup gasped at the news. He looked away onto the table in disbelief. His fist punched against the desk.

"How could they…"

Suddenly, the door of the office opened, revealing Kai the advisor.

"Queen Anna—" he panted.

"What is it Kai?" I hopped off the table to walk to him.

"The Therondian crew… they broke out of prison! They have fled!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Anna's POV**

"Liutenant Mattias! Where are those men headed?"

The lieutenant turned to the source of my call and put himself at ease. "Your majesty! We do not know yet, they could've swum their way, but we imagine they are headed to their ship, so we have sent men to guard it."

"Smart, make sure no Arendellian is out of their house!" I commanded and kept rushing on. I was on my way with Hiccup to the dungeon to check the situation, which was located just below the ground. Having arrived there, I opened the barred door of the dungeon.

Considering it was late, I grabbed one of the torches on the wall to illuminate the interior as we walked down. The dungeon was, at the moment, only filled with those men. However, hearing that they have escaped, there was nobody found in the cells.

"Ughhff…" A cry sounded from the other end of the hall, but it was so dark, we couldn't see anything.

"What's that?" Hiccup asked.

"We can only find out…" I answered. We progressed with our walk, and I stopped at my track when Hiccup gasped at something behind me.

I turned around, "What is it?"

The Viking's eyes were locked onto the wall next to us, and right away, I discovered something; blood stain.

"N-No…" I shook my head. Ever since I saw Hiccup bathing in his own blood, the trauma left me scarred mentally. It made me want to see no more drop of blood of my own people.

"Anna, let's go…"

His voice rather startled me, as I was practically frozen at the sight. He took the torch and took the lead. I slowly followed him, but then he stopped abruptly as I bumped into him.

"Stay here, Anna," he gave the torch back to me. Confusion filled my head at this weird behavior.

"Why?"

"Just do as I say," he glanced to me, sharing a stern look. With that, he left me to the darkness. All I could hear was his footsteps, which ended after several seconds. Afterwards, I heard some chatter.

"Oh… You're… gon… alright…"

My ears heard something being ripped, like a piece of cloth being ripped away.

"MFFTT!"

The painful cry defeated me; I rushed my way deeper into the dungeon and found the source of the cry. A soldier stabbed on the belly. Another soldier was trying to mend him but he had nothing on him to fix him up. Hiccup, on the other hand, used a piece of his own shirt to patch the wound.

"You're going to be alright, Chris! We got you!" The other soldier assured. The wounded one, apparently named Chris, was gripping his mate's shirt to endure the pain. He bit his bottom lip so hard; I spotted a stream of blood flowing from it. I had to stop it.

"Chris, is it?" I knelt down in front of him, hanging the torch on the wall. Hiccup spotted me and gave a sign of annoyance, but he continued his work on the patch. Chris looked up to me and miraculously smiled, as if my presence healed him mentally.

"Y-Your majesty!"

I tore a bit of my sleeve and rolled it. "You're making your own lips bleed, Chris. Bite this instead while we carry you to the infirmary, okay? You will make it."

He nodded weakly. I gently shoved the piece of cloth into his mouth after he opened it.

"Patch is up, let's go," Hiccup took the soldier's arm around his neck and the other soldier did the same with the other arm. Simultaneously, they stood up, and Chris groaned loudly in pain.

"ARFFFGGGG!"

It genuinely pained me to hear his cry. "Hang in there, Chris… Hiccup, take him to the infirmary, okay? I'm gonna check the cells," I grabbed the torch again and took off into the depth of the dungeon.

This part of the castle was the least visited one, either by even guards or me, the queen. The place only had those Therondians in the past two weeks ever since Hiccup's arrival, so it explains the low frequency of patrols. Holding prisoners was not our thing.

I stopped at a cell that was opened, and to my surprise, some bits of blood were found on the bars of the door. Violence was their way out of the cells, it seemed. It's amazing how they could utilize such small window to make their way out of the prison.

"What did you find?"

I turned around, and Hiccup was there. "One of them must've somehow grabbed the keys from one of the guards with violence. The blood explains it all. How was that man?"

"A servant took him to the infirmary, he will be okay. Anna, we cannot let those men escape. Let's join the search."

I couldn't agree more. With that, we headed out of the dungeon in a rush towards the village. Before heading out to the village, we took Molly out and rode the horse out of the main gate. But something stopped me at the gate. A guard, being carried by two men, with a cut on his neck.

"W-What happened?" I asked the two men who were carrying the dead body of the guard.

One guard looked up to me. "Must've been the prisoners, my queen. I'm afraid he wasn't the only victim of the breakout, my queen…" he dragged his sentence and continued carrying the body.

I froze instantly. They killed him. My emotion built up inside me, but it was so complex, I couldn't tell if I was shocked, sad, or furious. All of them were thrown into my head, mixing together in a disharmonious phase.

"Anna… you're okay?" Hiccup asked from behind.

I half-turned to him. "I…"

He squeezed my shoulder. "I'm sorry, but let's focus on the task at hand. No one else is going to die in vain tonight."

He was right, I couldn't let anyone else die anymore. It's my duty.

I signaled Molly to go again. Right away, after crossing the bridge, we arrived at the village. From our position, we were able to see the whole village thoroughly, and guards with torches were roaming about in the village, searching for the escapees.

I spotted one familiar figure, Lieutenant Mattias, walking from house to house. Hiccup and I hopped off the horse to go to him.

"Any sign of them, Lieutenant?" I asked.

The lieutenant turned to me, "No, I'm afraid. Queen Anna, you shouldn't be out here. It's too dangerous."

"Sorry, lieutenant, but no. I will join the search party, even if it means going into the woods," I said with full determination. The lieutenant sighed initially, but then he gestured me to be by his side as he kept on with his search.

The three of us checked every house, every alley, heck, every roof there was. Some villagers found the situation to be tense, and I couldn't blame them. Their looks screamed fear and anxiety, as the story of Hiccup's fate with his chiefhood was already spread across the kingdom. They knew how dangerous these men were.

"Lieutenant, let's check the next house, but let's spread this time to cover more ground," Hiccup proposed as we exited a house. I didn't quite agree with the idea.

"It will be dangerous, Hiccup. Let's just stick together—"

The door of the next house opened by itself when we hadn't even reached the house. From it, exited a man, dressed in a simple but dirty white shirt and brown trousers, holding a sword. When the next man came out of the door with the same attire, that's when I learned that it was the outfit of the crew of the Therondian ship.

One by one they walked out nonchalantly to the middle of the street, glaring into our eyes as we tracked their movement.

"H-How many are there, again, lieutenant?" I asked.

"Thirty, your majesty," he drew his sword out, taking a few steps forward. "Surrender now! We have your ship surrounded, you have nowhere to escape—"

He was cut when the very last man to come out of the house was holding a girl in his arms. A knife was pointed right at her neck. From the little girl's eyes kept streaming down tears, sobbing endlessly in fear. A woman attempted to reach for the girl, but a guard prevented her from doing so. Her sobbing told me that she was the mother of the little girl.

"You will let us go, or I will kill this girl!" The man exclaimed. Though their presence out in the open attracted immediate attention of the guards who were searching for them, they showed no sign of fear whatsoever. The man who had the girl 'showed off' his hostage to the other guards around him by dragging her around recklessly.

"L-LET THE GIRL GO! She has nothing to do with this!" Lieutenant Mattias warned. His tone already indicated a sign of fear, sadly.

"Not after I exposed her neck open, if that's what you really want," he smirked.

"Let go of her."

Hiccup stepped forward into the open from the crowd. The man's expression changed when he saw the Viking, as if his presence pleased him.

"My my… Chief Hiccup of Berk, you're still alive? Thought you would've killed yourself after being released!" He said. "Look lads! Our chief is still alive!" He mocked, and his lads laughed.

"Take me instead, sell me to your merchant or whatever, and you'll get your share of money for selling me. Sounds good?" Hiccup offered.

"Hiccup, what are you doing?!" I called out in a volume that I hoped the criminals wouldn't hear. However, the man noticed my presence in the scene.

"Queen Anna? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now, my queen?" He asked mockingly.

I looked up to him and stepped forward with a frown. "You don't get to tell me how my sleeping schedule should be, jerk. We have you surrounded! Release her at once!" I commanded. I heard more swords being drawn, rifles being cocked in the background, and yet, the men didn't flinch.

"It takes me more than that to kill a Therondian, I'm afraid," he placed the edge of his knife on the girl's cheek and made a cut on it. All of us gasped at the sight.

"HUAHHH!" The girl cried in pain.

I took another step forward. "YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I SWEAR—"

"Better offer!" The man cut. "I want Her Majesty as well, with Chief Hiccup too," he proposed, pointing at us with his knife.

Lieutenant Mattias stepped forward. "No, take me instead!"

"And who might you be? You think you will have a higher price than the queen of Arendelle herself? HA!"

The lieutenant merely clicked his tongue in defeat.

I looked at Hiccup, and he nodded to me. I was still unsure with the decision, but then,

'It's a little girl, Anna… we can't let her die…' Hiccup whispered.

He's true. With that, the two of us walked towards the criminals to hand ourselves. From behind, I heard many cries and pleadings of my people to not to turn ourselves in. However, the price was too high, I would not like to witness a little girl die in my life.

With force, two men grabbed us by the hands and placed them on our backs and placed a sword against our necks. My eyes rolled to see the man who was holding the girl.

"N-Now let go of the girl…" I spoke.

"I changed my mind. I'm taking you all," he simply said.

His change of mind fueled my rage within an instant. "YOU SAID YOU'D LET GO OF HER—"

He turned around to face the crowd on the other side of the street. "Move! All of you! Make way!" He used the girl as his path and led his men on his march. The little girl literally opened their way; guards and villagers backed off as they spectated the scene. Hiccup and I were forced to walk along.

"Boy, are we gonna get some big money out of these three…" the man spoke.

I started to feel desperate. I looked at Hiccup, who was strangely looking at something else at the houses we walked past. When I tried to search for the thing that he was most interested in, I found nothing.

"Hiccup…" I called weakly.

He turned to me. He was about to say something, but the man who held me made me look forward with his filthy hand.

"It's going to be alright, Anna," he assured. I looked at him on the corner of my eyes.

"Very optimistic of you, chief," the man who had Hiccup mocked.

We continued to walk past the village and the people who looked at us with full concern. The little girl never stopped sobbing along the way. It was stupid to turn ourselves in, but not turning ourselves in would've been stupider. With that mindset, I set my chin up and continued my current apparent fate ahead of me; imprisonment.

A few minutes later, still followed by my people, we arrived at that very ship. The Therondian's. A plank of wood was already placed to bridge our way to the ship. One by one, each of us climbed the plank. Behind us, what I was sure was all Arendellians were spectating us hopelessly. Once onboard, the men who held both me and Hiccup led us to the lower floor of the deck, but then,

"Hold on lads. I think it's better to just tie them on the center mast here! So we can keep our eyes on 'em, and perhaps do some entertainment to 'em!"

I gritted my teeth. "You disgusting son of a bi—"

Before I could even finish my sentence, I was pulled violently to the mast that the man meant. Each of us was pushed against the mast as they tied us with a rope. The rope was so tight, I could barely breathe.

"Nghhh…" I shoved myself against the rope to create some room, but it was no use.

"Mommy…"

I looked at the girl, who was barely in my sight. She was merely on the corner of my eyes.

"… What's your name, little one?" I asked.

"*sniffles* I-Iduna, your majesty…"

Oh no…

"Iduna, we're gonna get you out of here, okay? I promise. Right, Hiccup?" I assured. I couldn't see Hiccup because he was on the other side of the mast.

Suddenly, the sky up above lighted. I never knew it was cloudy because I was too distracted by our current fate. Lightnings illuminated the sky for brief seconds, giving a warning of an incoming rain.

"Ah shite… take 'em to the cell instead. It will be one wet sailing boys! Up and move it!" The previous man exclaimed. With that, his crew undid the rope around us and led us to the cell.

"Enjoy…"

The man slammed the cell door harshly.

I sat down and pulled Iduna into my arms, and she didn't even hesitate to hug me back. Hiccup warmed me with a hug as well from behind, shoving his hands on my arms. For once, I felt safe in his arms.

"It's gonna be alright, Iduna… I will get us out."

I smiled at her, fixing her bangs which blocked one of her beautiful green eyes. In return, she smiled back.

"Yes, your majesty…" She answered in a low voice.

"Call me Anna, Iduna."

I kissed her forehead, pulling her closer.

"Funny... this was the same cell I was kept in last time."


	10. Chapter 10

**Hiccup's POV**

It was dark.

But then, I sensed something brightening my eyes.

I opened my eyes, and they were immediately greeted by the ray of sunlight from the window. By reflex, I evaded the sunlight to a shade behind the barrel. In the process, I noticed Anna, who was already awake.

"Hey… Good morning."

Indeed, it was a good morning, Anna.

"Morning…" I laid my back against the barrel she used to lay her back. "Good sleep?"

"I didn't sleep," she replied nonchalantly. The answer took me by surprise.

"Why?"

"I don't know… I guess I'm just… too anxious to sleep. Iduna slept, and still is, which is the only thing that matters, anyway," she gestured to the child, sleeping soundlessly. Her arms were wrapped around Anna's right one, screaming vulnerability. "Who would've thought I would be with you right now, and a child named after my mother in a prison, heading to Therondia and about to be sold?"

Though it was mostly spoken in sarcasm, it didn't take an expert to tell that she was feeling hopeless, yet in the same time, she had a responsibility in a form of a helpless little girl to take care of.

"Anna…"

"Hiccup, why did those guys cheer when finding you alive?" She suddenly asked. "I know it means that their 'good' still exists for them, but… still alive?"

Needless to say, I was speechless by the question for a moment. I didn't want to answer the question, to be frank, as it was merely a thing in the past that I had moved on from. But her eyes demanded an answer.

"I uh… When you discovered me trying to kill myself in the inn, that was not the first time I tried to do it—"

"Oh my god…" she groaned, cutting me off.

"I tried… the same method, on the same spot," I gestured to my right wrist, which is still wrapped with a bandage. Slowly, I undid the wrap. "Your servants might've thought that it was merely a cut done by those guys, but, it was actually my own doing."

I revealed my heavily stitched wrist to her, and her face cringed in fear right away. The cut messed my skin severely, that even the tidiest stitching would still look messy.

"The guys noticed me… did some stitching on me with whatever knowledge they had in stitching wounds, and handcuffed me for the rest of the journey," I finished my explanation and covered my hand back with the bandage.

I tilted my head to her to wait for a response, but her eyes were locked onto something else on the floor, which I noticed what. Dried blood. The morning light really did reveal the interior of the cell better.

"Y-yeah… that was my doing…" I admitted.

I noticed her eyes beginning to water. "Y-You could have died… My guard c-could have discovered your corpse instead!"

I knelt in front of her. "But you didn't! I'm here, very much alive! Yes, we could've been ended up in a better place—"

_SLAP!_

Previously, it was my right cheek. Now my left one received the same treatment as well.

"Hiccup… knowing that the chances of you dying in the ship instead were _that_ big, i-i-it scares me!" Her lips quivered. "I could've lost you!"

I remained silent for a moment.

I didn't take the slap nicely, but the queen was in a desperate need for some light in this darkness in which we were breathing in. I decided to be the better person overall.

"Anna," I looked up to her. "You're scared right now. My words remain the same; _I am here_. Alive, animate, and most importantly… no longer suicidal. I have some people to live up to. My mother, the survivors…" I dragged my sentence.

"Elsa… You…" I reached for her arms to shove them, conveying reassurances. "And Iduna," I eyed at the sleeping girl while smiling.

"And… goodness… I thank you, Anna, from the bottom _of_ the bottom of my heart for saving my life. I can't stress that enough. Heck, there are survivors out there, Anna! Had I died… in vain… before Blue arrived to Arendelle…"

I rolled my sight onto the floor. I couldn't imagine how awful it would've been.

But then, Anna lifted my chin.

"You're right, I'm just scared, fear took the better of me. I'm… terribly sorry for slapping you. Again. Never have I ever thought that I would slap a person like you, Hiccup," she smiled sheepishly, though her expression still showed guilt. I merely smiled at her, nodding down to say that it was okay.

_YAaawnn…_

I looked down to Iduna, and she was scrunching her eyes. The little girl was awake.

"Mom, what's for breakfast?"

We couldn't help but to giggle at Iduna's question. Anna quickly wiped away her watery eyes to fix the little girl's bed hair.

"Good morning Iduna~" Anna simply responded. The girl stretched every muscle in her body and cracked a few bones. When she fully opened her eyes, that's the moment she realized of our current fate.

"Oh…" She looked up to Anna. "I'm hungry…"

"I'm sorry, Iduna. We don't really have anything," Anna said in a sorry tone.

"Awww…" Iduna turned to me, "Mr. Haddock, don't you have something to eat?"

I shook my head.

"I'm sure they will give us something, you can eat my portion later, kay?" Anna offered.

"Are you on a diet, Anna?" Iduna innocently asked. At this, I couldn't hold my big "HAHA!"

The queen gave me a glare, but quickly softened her eyes when she looked down at the child.

"N-No, I'm not."

"I think you are. Anyway, are you two a couple? Like mommy and daddy?"

Bwoah, what a question, kid!

We exchanged some looks, some uneasy looks. But when we did so, I briefly noticed… how much of a gorgeous woman Anna was. It was almost like the kid's question was a catalyst for me to really appreciate her beauty. Her freckles, her blue eyes, her hair, her lips.

Luckily, it took me quickly enough to realize that I was staring at her. Luckily, while doing so, Anna was staring back at the kid, trying to come up with an answer.

"We're not, Iduna," I ended the awkward pause.

"Y-Yeah! We're really good friends, though," Anna added.

Aw, just really good friends?

Wait, did I really imply that I would've preferred something more?

Now's not the time, Hiccup. Let's not squeeze any romanticism in my life for now.

With that, I shook my head to get myself out of it.

"What she said," I nodded to agree.

"Okay, I think I'll sleep again, wake me up when it's breakfast time, yea?" Iduna asked, laying in Anna's arms once again.

"Will do, love," Anna replied.

The awkward question made me want to have no eye contact with Anna for a few moments, so I rested my back again on the barrel.

"Where were we?" I asked.

"Oh—hmm… I was apolo—"

"INCOMING CAVALRY FROM BEHIND!"

A voice exclaimed from the main deck. Both of us immediately looked up to direction of the voice. Followed after the warning was footsteps of the crew, emerging from the floor beneath us. Men soon rushed their way to the deck, and chatters filled the air.

"Prepare the cannons!"

"Loosen all sails! We need every speed we can!"

"What's the estimated time of arrival?"

"Three minutes and closing in, _fast!_ How are they closing in so quickly?!"

"Man those cannons!"

"Who are they?!"

"Arendellian, sir! Five ships in total!"

When the name was spoken, Anna and I exchanged surprised expressions right away. Before we could even say anything to each other, the ship suddenly banked to the right drastically, making ourselves to be thrown to the bars of the cell. From outside, torrential water sounded harshly, almost like washing against the boat. It didn't take long for Iduna to reopen her eyes once again. She pulled Anna's arm close to her.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"Rescue is coming," Anna replied confidently. Hearing the response, the little girl's face brightened.

"Why are we being dragged towards them?!"

"I don't know sir! The water, the wind, they're making us go to their direction!"

"What the fooking hell, FIRE THE CANNONS!"

_BOOM, BAM_

_BAM, BOOM_

"Where did those ice walls come from?! Keep shooting, boys!"

_BOOM BOOM_

_BAM BAM_

Anna and I exchanged another look. "Elsa!" We spoke in unison.

"Sir, they're getting close—INCOMING!"

Something huge collided with our ship. The three of us were once again thrown to the other end of the cell because of the impact. Fortunately, both of us had Iduna secure in our arms, though our backs were sacrificed as they hit the barrels hard.

Soon, cheering of men and sounds of swords clashing each other took place. I also heard rifles being shot as well. What a battle it was just above of our heads! To top it off, we heard that very distinct sound of ice magic.

"WHOA WHOA WHOAA—"

"WAHHH—"

_Splash_

More scared 'whooah's sounded from above. I think it might be some men being thrown off onboard.

"Check every corner!"

That voice. There was no mistaking.

A pair of slender feet descended down the stairs, revealing none other than Elsa herself.

"Elsa!" Both of us called. Elsa turned to us.

"ANNA! HICCUP!" She called, rushing to our cell. Her hands immediately tried to open the bars with force, but her muscles were nowhere near strong enough to open them.

"You have to find the key," Anna said. "One of those guys must be the one—"

"No need, back off, all of you."

We followed her instruction without questioning anything. With that, she firmly held two bars with her hands. The ice queen shut her eyes and began to freeze the bars. She seemed to be attempting to break it with ice, and I knew for a fact that to break metal, it would need a very low temperature to do it. And that was exactly what was happening; even after backing off to a safe distance, my skin sensed the cold Elsa was flowing onto those bars.

"Nghh…" she grunted, flowing more and more magic onto the thick bars. Finally, she let go of them and punched it, breaking the bars into pieces.

"Ouch… One more!" She grabbed the two bars next to the ones she had destroyed and did the same, seeing that the opening was not enough yet for us to get out.

Again, the cold radiated so harshly, I was sure at one point, I began to shiver. Fortunately, Elsa managed to break the bars before the cold was unbearable.

"E-Elsa…" Anna went through the opening while carrying Iduna on one arm, hugging her sister afterwards with Iduna in the middle. In the hug, Elsa looked at me and smiled. I merely smiled back and nodded while walking out of the cell.

"And who might you be, little one?" Elsa asked, pulling away from the hug and also taking the girl on her arms instead.

"Iduna…"

The name gave Elsa a shock, judging from her gasp. When she looked at her sister, she could only give a nod that said "Yeah, that's her name."

The ice queen looked at the little girl again, "That's a beautiful name! Hi, I'm Elsa."

"Hi Queen Elsa. Thank you for rescuing us. But I'm hungry."

The fact that she mentioned the title that she no longer possessed and how urgent a breakfast for her made us giggle at her innocence.

"Hi Hungry, I'm Hiccup. Let's get you some food, shall we?" I pointed a thumb to the upper floor. They nodded down, and followed me to the stairs.

"You sound like daddy," Iduna said. The sisters inevitably broke out a laughter.

"Ohh, I could only hope that was a compliment," I responded. After reaching out to the main deck, the object that drew my attention right away was one of the Arendellian ships near the one we stood on, its bowsprit piercing through the Therondian ship. That would explain the massive impact; Elsa practically hit the ship with her own. Later, after looking at the wreck in awe, I discovered that the deck was only filled with Arendellian soldiers. No Therondian was in sight. Our presence was welcomed warmly by the soldiers, as they cheered and clapped for us.

"Where are the Therondians, Elsa?" I asked while responding to the greetings by waving.

"We threw them off into the sea. Hiccup, meet four out of five spirits of Northuldra!" She turned to an empty spot of the deck. Out of the blue, a tiny purple-ish lizard hopped onto her shoulder, and onto the floor. It circled me, and I noticed the trail of purple flame it left as it walked. Its eyes were big and googly, very much reminiscent of Toothless' eyes.

After that, a blow of wind blew from behind, making me nearly lose my balance. The wind, which had autumn leaves, sort of… stood next to the lizard. The lizard looked up to the leaves with a wide smile, which were simply floating next to it.

Next, we felt the boat swayed a little. I heard a torrent of water near starboard, and from there, jumped a horse onboard, its body made out of water. Elsa approached the horse and used her magic to change its body into ice.

"In case you were wondering, the last one who's present is me, Hiccup," Elsa giggled, pointing at herself.

"Ohhh! You must've asked for their help to reach us!" Anna said. Her sister nodded in confirmation.

"Correct. Nokk moved the water beneath us," she looked at the horse, "And Gale blew our ships forward! And… the Therondians off of the ship, as well." She gestured at the leaves of autumn.

"Wow!" Iduna said in amazement.

"Queen Elsa, Queen Anna."

We turned around to see the same old Lieutenant Mattias, who cleared his throat for a moment. "I hate to break the introduction of the spirits, but I must ask you of what to do to the Therondians. What do we do to them?"

"We leave their ship, they climb aboard and go home to their kingdom with a message that Arendelle do not fear them," Elsa proposed.

"Elsa, they have killed some guards when they escaped! We must at least give them a punishment for taking the lives of our men! They held Iduna as hostage, for crying out loud! Let's just sink this ship! Burn it!" Anna replied angrily, stomping on the floor.

"Uh… But an eye for an eye…" Elsa said.

"And the world becomes blind," I finished, stepping forward. "Anna, I'll admit that I can never see myself taking one's life, and I'm… actually quite sure as well that you can't do that as well. Let's be the bigger adult in here, even if it means taking the most ridiculous sounding decision there is."

The queen of Arendelle pondered for a moment. "… What are you suggesting?"

"We leave those guys here… Elsa, you said that the um, horse, moved the water, right?" I asked.

"Nokk is a water spirit, yes."

"We throw these men something to keep them floating, perhaps the lifeboats, and send them to a deserted island or something! This way, Therondia Kingdom will still not know that we have learned about their plan and all, and we also give these men a 'punishment' for their crimes."

Everybody onboard processed my suggestion, and their expressions seemed to show agreement.

"I quite agree with you…" Anna spoke. "What do you think, sis?"

"I honestly can't think of a better option," her sister replied, shrugging.

"Myself included," Lieutenant Mattias added. "I need a map! Let's find ourselves remote island."


	11. Chapter 11

**Elsa's POV (surprise! Bet ya didn't see that coming)**

It was my very first time captaining a ship. Lieutenant Mattias was usually the one who would hold such position, but for the sake of experience, I asked the Lieutenant to let me do the captaining job. He said yes.

The next thing my instinct told me to do after directing the ship's direction was to give everything a check. My men. Check.

Therondian sent off. Check.

Iduna's breakfast. Check.

Sails. Check.

Bruni. He's playing with Iduna. So, check.

Gale blowing the sails. Check.

Nokk moving the water. Check.

Perhaps I should tell these two not to rush as much as we did on our way to intercept the Therondian.

I looked up to the gust of autumn leaves blowing the sails. "Gale? Don't be so hard on the sails, no need to rush, okay?"

I was replied with chirping. I could only wonder how Gale actually produces that kind of sound. I walked my way to the poop deck of the ship and looked down the wooden railing to the water. There, a torrent of water was pushing the ship forward.

"Nokk!" I called, and the water horse resurfaced onto the water. "No need to push as hard as you did previously, okay?"

The horse nodded and dived into the water again. I just didn't want to tire the spirits if I didn't need to. Do they even get tired?

A question for another day.

Anna. She's feeding Iduna in the lower deck. Check.

Hiccup.

Hiccup?

I looked around for the Viking, walking my way from the poop deck to the lower deck. I briefly looked around; there were only some soldiers, Anna and Iduna, and our supplies. I descended down to the lowest deck, and there was nobody there.

I made my way up to the main deck and looked around again. Where could he be—oh.

I saw a wooden peg leg behind some barrels near a mast. Who else would it be, I wonder?

"Hiccup?" I walked to see the guy himself. "Bored?"

He looked up, slightly surprised. "Oh hey! No, just…"

I sat down with him on the floor. "Got something in mind?"

"Mmm not really."

Judging from his eyes, I could tell that he was hiding something. But I let it slip for now. "They didn't hurt you, right?"

"I'm okay, thanks."

His short responses really made me think there was something in his mind that might be bugging him. I wanted to ask him, but perhaps it was best to let him tell it by himself.

"Hey… thank you for your bravery, Hiccup," I landed a hand on his shoulder. "I had no idea what was in your mind when you stepped forward to those guys, but thanks."

He breathed a 'yeah' while smiling. "I mean, it was a little girl. It was a no brainer to hand myself. I'm sure you would've done the same."

"True. I can't believe how they could do that to a little girl."

"Indeed…"

Hiccup was not a bad conversationalist, but at the moment, he was doing bad. Seeing that there was no more response from him, I sat on one of the barrels to really enjoy the breeze of the wind fully. Perhaps it was the breeze made by Gale, but it was something enjoyable. Not to mention the view.

"Hey, um, has Anna told you?" Hiccup asked out of the blue, looking up to me.

"About what?"

"About the… expedition… and all," he sat on one of the barrels as well.

"Color me interested! Nope, she hasn't mentioned anything about it."

He rolled his eyes to me in a sarcastic manner. "Heh… You really are now more interested in going into adventures, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "I like going into the unknown."

He chuckled at the statement. "Right. So, Blue arrived. Out of nowhere."

I gasped deeply. "Blue?! The messenger dragon?!"

"Yeah! He just arrived last night, and on him, there was a letter."

I rotated my sight to see him better. "What did it say?"

"There are survivors. They're currently residing in Old Berk. They found a flock of Terrible Terrors in the archipelago, and decided to send letters in hope that one of them would find me. And one did, Blue! We're really lucky that he headed to the old and probably the only route he knew, Arendelle-Berk. The one who wrote the letter was…" He looked at me. "My mom."

"Oh gosh! That's great news!" I clapped my hands, and due to my excitement, a flurry of snowflake materialized around my hands.

"Coincidentally, last night, Anna was with me by the dock. So, we headed to her office to plan out the logistics for the trip. And then, of course, the prisoners broke out… and so on," he placed his hands on his hips.

"I'm going!" I proposed.

"I knew you'd say that. Anna was right. You would insist on coming. Are you sure?"

"Very. I'd be a great investment in the team," I showed off my power by summoning a flurry of ice. "Other than the fact that I want to make sure that you two are going to be okay throughout the trip. I can protect you with my power."

He merely looked down at the floor with a small hint of smile. I reached for his shoulder again and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"So it's a rescue mission? We take them back to Arendelle?"

"Oh no," he shook his head. "We're heading to New Berk afterwards, and perhaps to… the Edge of the World."

"Wait, what?"

"Elsa, the Therondian had learned about that place. Whatever they're going to do there, we can't allow it," Hiccup explained. "I imagine they are going to… well, you interrogated those guys, and you later learned that they sell humans, right? I think dragons, creatures that only exist all the way in the north, would bring them a fortune if they were to sell them."

I straightened my back, trying to catch up with all of this. I processed the adventure ahead of us slowly. It really is happening. I have visited Old Berk, yes. But New Berk, I have not. Let alone the Edge of the World. Does the name really mean the 'edge'? As in there is no more to see beyond that?

"Yeah, lots to come, Elsa," Hiccup scoffed. "Take it all in, first. But for now," He gestured to the view ahead of us. "We're here!"

I looked up to see the entrance to the fjord of Arendelle itself. Wait, how come we're already here?

"Gale!" I called to the wind spirit, and the spirit put itself at ease in front of me. "I told you that you didn't need to rush! Did you not listen?"

Gale simply let out chirping that sounded like laughter and dashed off to the sea. One of the five spirits, ladies and gentlemen, with a sense of humor. I gave my forehead a smack.

"I think what I saw was Gale last night…" Hiccup spoke. I took off my hand of my eyes.

"Pardon me?"

"Before being taken onto the ship, along the roof of the houses, I saw these… leaves, being carried by the wind. However, first, there were no trees with loose leaves around. Second, the movement of the wind was so supernatural, there was no way a wind would move like that," he explained, motioning his arms like the wind. "I wouldn't be surprised to know if that particular spirit is the humorous one, except if the one you haven't shown to me is also humorous."

"Ah yes, Gale was the one who told me there was a problem in Arendelle. Gale is… unique. Every spirit is unique, in fact," I shrugged.

We were nearing the dock in no time. Gale was really pushing the boat harder than ever, probably due to excitement of seeing Anna alive. The spirit literally lifted Anna into the air up to at least fifty meters high when it was 'greeting' her.

"Well, take your time. Tell Anna to catch some sleep as well, she hasn't slept at all," the Viking hopped off the barrel.

Our approach to the dock was actually too fast; I scolded Gale for being so extravagant with the amount of wind it made. Fortunately, we managed to slow down just in time. A childish spirit, who would've thunk?

The trio, Hiccup, Anna, and Iduna, were warmly greeted by the fellow Arendellians as they stepped their feet on the dock. Many cheered for their names for their heroism to save Iduna. From the crowd, out her mother appeared. She later expressed her gratitude to us in tears and sobs, and even asked if we would like something in return. Of course, we said no to the offer politely.

Even as we marched along the street, the cheering didn't stop. The thanks, the wishes, the cheering, or even the mere gestures like bowing down or hand waving. These small things, in a large scale like this, really emphasized just how important they were in my heart. Though no longer sitting on the throne, I would do anything to keep seeing these people smile.

Well, keeping them alive first would be a nice start.

We separated with Hiccup when we passed the inn. When he did so, I could see a slight change of expression on Anna. When my sister stepped off the ship with Iduna in her arms, her eyes only opened by half, as she hadn't really slept properly. She just had a taste of babysitting a girl, though it was brief, it forced her to keep her eyes peeled. However, when the Arendellians welcomed us, she suddenly turned to her bubbly-self. She smiled, laughed, and waved at our people. It was almost like her drowsiness was gone right away.

And then, when Hiccup left to his room, it returned right away. Not before she let out a sigh that she tried to hide away from me, anyway.

I pulled my sister with an arm close, passing through the main gate of the castle. "Let's have a breakfast. Then you wash yourself, and go catch some sleep, yes?"

"Hmmm… can't we just skip to the sleep?" Anna let out one big yawn.

My nose picked up an unpleasant scent from the air, and there was no way it could've originated from something else other than her. "You're smelly. At least have a bath first."

With that, I escorted her to her room to prevent her from sleeping on places where she's not meant to sleep in. Last time, she slept on one of the couches in the main hall of the castle, and drooled. It's the drool that I'd like to avoid.

After doing so, my mind urged myself to get something to eat. Before I could even make my way, one familiar figure came to me.

"Lieutenant Mattias," I called.

"Your majesty," he slightly bowed to me. "I need to ask you about something."

"Go on."

"It's about the fallen ones, when are you planning the funeral?"

Funeral?

"W-What funeral are we talking, Lieutenant?" My voice stuttered in shock.

"Did you forget?" He took off his hat, sighing. "The prisoners killed some guards in their way, Your Majesty. In total, ten men have lost their lives. Their families are grieving as we speak."

Goodness. I really did forget.

I hid my face with my hands, then ran them down. "I-I'm sorry. I forgot. Oh gosh… I… will think it through."

* * *

"How could I forget? I'm so stupid, Anna mentioned it right in front of me, how did I forget? I'm so stupid," I knocked my head with a palm. "So unqueenly of me, ugh!"

Due to irritation and embarrassment, a flurry of snowflake formed around my hands as I stared at them. However, I was about to take over Anna's duty for the day, which would involve papers. Ice and papers do not go together well.

I exhaled some air, inhaled afterwards, exhaled, inhaled, and ended it with a clap.

I walked my way to the office and twisted the door handle open. To my surprise, Hiccup was there.

"Hiccup?"

The Viking looked up to me, placing away the paper he was reading. "Oh hey."

"What are you doing in here?" I asked, closing the door behind me.

He gestured at the pile of papers on the desk. "I thought I'd read them in advance, so then I'd just tell Anna what's what."

He did not. What a guy. Even when he knew that Anna was most likely drooling in her slumber at the moment.

I smiled at him, walking towards the desk. "I'll help, oh!—"

My eyes stopped at the creature chilling on the couch by the window. Blue the Messenger Terrible Terror!

"Oh Blue! So nice to see you again!" I knelt in front of the dragon. Its eyes showed recognition right away, and it jumped into my arms, and around my shoulders.

"I miss you too!" I gave the dragon pets and rubs, and I was returned with purrs. Dragons and purrs, who would've thought?

"Dragon has been chilling here while we were gone," Hiccup chuckled. "Look at you, Elsa. Already looking like a dragon lady."

"Oh, please. I've only met this little fellow throughout my life—"

"Wrong! You and Anna have met Toothless and had a ride! Geez, how could you forget?" Hiccup cut.

He's right. How could I forget? What's wrong with my memory?

"True… Oh, and the sea dragons!" I said, giving more pets to Blue.

"Seashockers, Ma'am. They have names," he sarcastically replied.

"You have to tolerate me for that, you Vikings have a lot of complicated names for dragons," I chuckled. "I mean, how could you name this one _Terrible Terror?_ Because the first word that comes to mind upon seeing one is _Terror?_ "

He pondered for a moment and nodded down. "Pretty much, yeah. And there was never an encounter that is not terrible."

I laughed at him.

"Right…"

"Well, you're about to meet a lot more dragons, so better be prepared," Hiccup warned. "This is the logistics that Anna and I have settled with."

He handed me a piece of papers filled with scribbles and numbers. I sat down on the couch to read it. It took me a moment to really identify which parts were scribbles and which parts were the final information. After reading it thoroughly, I only had one question.

"It would take five days of sailing to get to Old Berk? I don't think it'll take that long, Hiccup," I furrowed a brow.

"When we were still trading, my ship was pulled by the Seashockers. They reduced the travel time significantly, remember?" He asked. Once again, my rusty memory failed me.

"Oh yes. Well, if so… this seems to be good enough—" I snapped a finger as I remembered something.

"I can bring Nokk! Or Gale! They would be able to shorten the traveling time!" I proposed.

Hiccup showed a look of doubt. "Are you sure? Don't they belong in Northuldra?"

I was about to say yes, it was at the end of my tongue.

"Uh… Maybe I can take one of them. I still have to ask the Elder first, too, actually," I sheepishly admitted. "What do you think? Nokk? Or Gale?"

"Perhaps the serious one, Nokk," Hiccup crossed his arms. "But if the Elder does not allow, it will be fine."

"I think she will allow it."

"Let's hope so. Oh, I forgot something. Weaponry. Bring armors. We might very well be going into a war," he looked at the window. The word 'war' reminded me that Hiccup had experienced it when a man who claimed could control dragons threatened Berk.

"Dragons… versus men. Goodness, I never thought it would happen, but it might very well be taking place as we speak. And I saw how good Therondians are in battles, so good, I could barely see anything."

His description froze me, emphasizing once again how much of an unknown fate that was ahead of me.

The Viking turned to me and widened his eyes. "P-Please don't overthink it, Elsa."

I shook my head to regain myself. "Yeah… Okay, let me write that," I picked a feather pen from the desk and wrote what he told me to. I put it away afterwards, it was time to focus on other paperwork.

"Alright. So," I took a sheet from the pile. "What's this all about?"

* * *

"Mrs. Deler requests Anna to have her appearance at her daughter's birthday," Hiccup said as he read a letter.

"Aw, that's a cute request. When is the birthday?" I asked.

"It's… a week from now."

I pondered for a moment. "Well… we will be gone, by then."

"… Sorry, Mrs. Deler."

* * *

"We are about to run out of silk, while winter is a month away," I reported while reading.

"Don't you have any other alliance with another kingdom that supplies you with fur?" Hiccup asked.

"Uh… not really. I think Corona has some, but we were relying on you when it came to fur," I replied.

"We'd better ask the kingdom right away," He pulled an empty sheet of paper to write a letter.

"We won't make it in time though. Besides, the castle stores some extra supply for this kind of occasion for the people."

"If so, then the deal doesn't have to take place before winter, right? Either it happens in or after winter, at least fur would be secure after the deal is set. That is, if they have fur to begin with," he suggested. Once again, his mindset outsmarted me. And he complained when his father talked about him taking his position, though, I guess, any child of a leader would complain. But Hiccup was anything but a wrong choice for the position.

"… Agree to agree."

* * *

"A letter from… the Southern Isles!"

My eyes widened at the name. "Throw that into the fire!"

His face showed doubt. "Are you sure you don't wanna—"

"NO!"

His body froze at my sternness. "O-Okay! Mm, Blue? Care to help?"

* * *

It was nearing evening. Hiccup and I were on an endless streak of paperwork, and were doing surprisingly well. We were just about to finish the last paper there was. After this, we could finally call it a day.

"Well, we're gonna have to hear from Anna about this," Hiccup commented, yawning loudly afterwards.

"Indeed. Oh, before I forget, can I ask you a favor?" I asked. My request immediately caught his interest side, judging from his sudden change of expression from the sleepy one to the not-so-sleepy-anymore one.

"What?"

"You do know there were… casualties when the Therondians broke out of prison, right?" I shoved my hands together in uneasiness.

"Mhm. How many were there?"

"Ten. I was wondering if we could… do a Viking funeral for these men? Knowing it's you, I think it would give them a great honor," I proposed.

"Oh wow…"

Of course, such favor was something big, something that Hiccup would not be able to answer right away. I gave him the time by sitting back down on the couch.

"I… would be honored," he nodded with a smile. "When do we do the funeral?"

"I was thinking right before we leave. I think that would be the perfect time."

"Sounds good to me too—"

He was cut when the door of the office opened, revealing one yawning Queen of Arendelle herself, still very much in her bed hair.

"Good morning, Anna," Hiccup and I welcomed in unison.

"Morninggg… Where's breakfast?"

She had definitely thought she had entered the dining room, _again._


	12. Chapter 12

**Anna's POV**

Oh god.

Did I really go for it?

It feels… real. I really feel his soft lips on mine.

We pulled away; my eyes instantly locked onto his. I never realized just how beautiful they were. They were as green as the field, as shiny as the fjord during noon, and as dreamy as… a dream. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III, it's too late but better than never; why are you so beautiful?

I leaned in for another kiss, but something pulled him into a crowd of people. Within a blink of an eye, he was merely an arm trying to reach me in the sea of people. Within another blink, he was gone.

I couldn't react in time. When I finally moved my muscles, a mysterious force prevented me from moving forward. Its strength was beyond mine; I couldn't do anything.

"AHHH!"

That scream. It could only belong to Hiccup.

"Hiccup!"

I woke up.

The sunrise from the windows suggested that it was nearing dawn. Dearie me, my sleep was quite long, wasn't it?

I caught my absent breath. My heart was racing. That dream. I wasn't sure which part made my heart race more; the romantic part or the horrifying part? And did I really kiss him?

I looked to the pillow that I laid my head on and found something embarrassing… a kiss mark. Of course, I kissed my own pillow. On what occasion were we doing that? How did I get lost in his eyes? Why did I lean in for another kiss? Who took him? Why did he scream?

I noticed right away that I was proposing questions that would never have answers to complement them. I wanted to stop, but one popped inside my mind.

"Out of every possibility of a dream, why did that one appear?" I asked myself. I tried to trace back anything in my recent times that could've triggered such dream. Then it came; Iduna's question. The little girl asked whether Hiccup and I were a couple. Of course, we were not. Our relationship had been purely platonic ever since we met, and Iduna's question sparked a tiny hint a sense of… romanticism of me towards the guy. It was almost like… my eyes were finally peeled. Hiccup is beautiful, in terms of personality and looks.

We've been friends for years. It was no secret that we would miss each other when we separated. Yes, before he arrived here by 'accident', we would only meet occasionally, but every time we did, we would make sure we would spend it fully. Never was a second wasted to even take a breather, since we knew that we would have to return to our duties.

Hiccup Haddock… a chief, a Viking, a dragon rider, a friend.

I placed my hand on my chest. It really was racing. Do I want to proceed to the next level?

My eyes watered at the sight of him limping. My heart dropped upon seeing him laying down on his own blood. My mind dedicated everything into healing his. My soul gave a piece of its own to ensure his soul's intactness. My lips smiled every time his own smiled.

All of these… I did it because I love him.

The word never occurred in my mind, but now that it has, I've never felt anything truer.

Goodness.

_Grumbles…_

Oh, my belly. I haven't had any food in a while.

I put on a simple dress from the wardrobe and walked out of my room. My feet were walking zig-zag in the hallway due to my sleepiness, so I wasn't really walking on a straight line on my way to the dining room.

I opened the door of the dining room, and found Elsa there.

"Good morning, Anna," she greeted.

"Morninggg… Where's breakfast?"

Weirdly, she gave herself a face palm. However, soon, I learned that I was in the office, not the dining room.

Goodness, and Hiccup was here. My heart skipped a beat so hard, I feared that either Elsa or Hiccup had heard the beat.

"The dining room is on the west wing, Your Majesty," Hiccup told me.

"H-Hiccup!" I closed the door behind me. "You're here!"

"Yeah, was just doing the papers with Elsa, and… Blue if you counted the amount of papers he had burned," he chuckled, approaching me. With what I was thinking about the guy in the past minutes, my cheeks inevitably reddened. Not just because he was approaching me, but also because I was still in my fresh-from-bed looks!

"I think I'm gonna go home for the day, I'll see you two tomorrow, yeah?" He patted my shoulder, reaching for the doorknob. He was never approaching for me; he was approaching for the door!

My heart dropped at his excuse to leave for the day.

"Leaving so s-soon?"

Damn, the stutters. I was never this nervous around him.

"I've been here since morning, Anna," Hiccup opened the door.

"Y-You sure you don't wanna eat with me—wait, morning?"

"Yeah, it's almost evening. We're still in the same day, in case you didn't notice. Tomorrow's dinner on the ship?" He proposed.

"Oh my—I completely lost track of time," I nodded. "Sure."

"Cool. See you two tomorrow! Oh, and Elsa, tell her about what we are going to do tomorrow before departure."

With that, he left the room. I then proceeded to interrogate myself; what was that all about? The stutters? The blushes? The heat inside my heart?

"Anna?"

"HA—PRESENT!" I turned to my sister, who turned out to be holding Blue who was asleep.

"Shhh… my baby is still asleep," she caressed the dragon on the head, then looked up to me to give a dirty look. "You're blushing."

"What? No, I'm not," I rejected.

My sister gently put the dragon off of her lap. "You can be open to me, I'm pretty good in keeping confidential stuff."

"Okay, perhaps, I was, but it's because I," I gestured to myself, "Am still fresh from the bed."

"You sure it's not because of Hiccup?" She nudged my side.

"No! Well, I mean, yeah, who would not be embarrassed to expose your fresh-from-bed looks to a guy like Hiccup?" I excused.

"A guy like Hiccup, huh?" She quoted. "So, does that mean you wouldn't mind exposing this look to other guys?"

I could feel my cheeks reddening again. "Oh quit it," I walked to the desk to grab one of the papers to start working. I read a random one that I reached.

"So… Your Majesty, if it would not be much of an inconvenience, we would like to have your presence at our daughter's birthday party—"

"We would be on our way to Old Berk by then since the party is a week from now," Elsa cut. "And I thought you were going to eat?"

"Oh, yeah, I was—"

"Gosh, you are so in love that a sight of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The III fulfilled your hunger right away—"

I covered my ears. "LalalaLALALA—"

"Aww, Anna, my sister, feeling butterflies in her stomach?" Elsa reached for my sides and tickled them. They were my weak spots, so I curled down right away.

"ELSA! S-STOP!" Inevitably, I laughed along.

"Don't pretend, Anna. Your gestures whenever the guy left your side, they're too obvious! Even I, a girl with zero experience in romance, could _easily_ read them!" She explained while continuing the tickles.

"G-geez!" My laughter was going out of hand as my eyes began to become wet. Finally, I curled down on the floor to avoid the tickles, which she stopped afterwards.

"O-Okay…" I looked up to my sister. "You sure you can keep confidential stuff?"

Elsa nodded confidently. "Mhm!"

I rested my back against the desk. "There's… a secret dungeon on the ceiling of my room," I smiled.

In return, she gave a frown. "That's the attic."

"HEHEH—I… just had a dream. He was in it…"

She sat in front of me. "What were you two doing?"

"We were um…"

"Kissing?" She cut.

Of course, that's the one that she guessed first. Of course, my cheeks got hotter right away.

And of course, she recognized the blush right away.

"You were!" She exclaimed, holding my forearms.

"Eh…" I didn't say yes or no, merely because she could read me easily.

"I heard it happens. It's alright."

But then I remembered the next part, the part that was not so pleasant to remember. "Elsa, but then, he was pulled into this… crowd of people. I couldn't move one bit."

"Pulled?"

"We were… well," I showed him the gap between my index and thumb fingers, which was nonexistent. "That close, but a mysterious force just pulled him into nowhere."

"And you fear that the same thing will take place in the future?" She asked.

"Yes. It's possible! Tomorrow, we're heading to New Berk, anything could happen!"

Elsa gave my hands a squeeze. "I won't let that happen; don't you worry."

I let out a sigh. But I appreciated her for her sisterly love. "Thank you. And about that thing that Hiccup told previously, what was it?"

"Oh. It's about the funeral, for our fallen soldiers. I proposed his kind's funeral, a Viking funeral," she explained. The idea drew my interest, though it was initially quite the surprise.

"Okay…"

"I just thought it would honor them greatly. Hiccup will lead the funeral. I believe they cremate their fallen ones. I mean, they also do the usual burial, but the one that is known the most is the cremation. Do you remember the one we witnessed when we visited Old Berk?"

I recalled the memory inside my mind. "Oh yes. It was one of the elders of the tribe. It was so beautifully done, I must say."

"The Vikings indeed respect their fallen ones so highly."

* * *

Though we thought the idea was brilliant, Elsa and I still had doubts whether the families of the fallen soldiers would agree to the idea or not. The possibility of the either of the families rejecting the idea was still there, but, the odds happened. After asking each family, they agreed to the idea.

Perhaps, Hiccup had his effect in the process of their decision-making. Every Arendellian knew him. Hiccup and Toothless were a duo that brought joy and warmth, literal warmth, to the kingdom. He would let people get close to his dragon to admire the beast, and some lucky ones got to ride on the air with Toothless. Now that he had shown up in the kingdom with almost nothing to lose other than his dear life, my people grew sorry for the Viking. And with him recently turning himself in for Iduna's safety in front of many eyes, he had received the utmost respect there was from everybody. And now,

every Arendellian was present at the cloudy dock.

The family of the soldiers were placing flowers on the bodies of the soldiers, which were wrapped with pyres. On top of each body sat their hats and their swords, a reminder of the service that had done to the kingdom. Since the families were grieving, it was inevitable that some of the bodies received their family's tears as well.

Ten men from ten different families; the last one to dress the last soldier with flowers was the one that ached the most; a woman, who was the daughter of one of the soldiers. Her mother had died because of a severe ill. Luckily, she was already a grown woman with enough earnings for herself, as I heard from my generals.

Finally, every family finished bidding their last farewells. They returned to their positions, filling the air with sobs and cries.

Hiccup, standing on the very front of the crowd, readied his arrows and bow. The Viking lit his arrow on a torch an Arendellian soldier was holding.

"May the Valkyries welcome you… and lead you through Odin's great battlefield."

"May they sing your names with love and fury, so that we might hear it from the depths of Valhalla, and know that you have taken your rightful places at the table of kings…" He paused, giving a nod to the soldiers who were standing by on each boat. With the nod, they hoisted each boat's sail, and the wind immediately picked them up. The boats slowly made their way to the fjord.

"…For great men have fallen. Soldiers. Fathers. Husbands. Friends. Arendellians."

Hiccup looked at us and nodded, signaling us to ready our bows and arrows. With that signal, Elsa, Arendellian Generals, and I nocked our burning arrows, aiming them upwards.

Hiccup turned back around to the boats. He nocked his arrow, aimed it upwards, and loosened the string.

Every eye locked onto it, watching it landing on one of the boats. After landing, it was time for us to loosen our strings. We fired the fire arrows.

It didn't take long until each boat was finally lit on fire due to the pyre that had been set on the bodies of the soldiers. The sight gained more tears from the eyes of the grieving families. I heard the crying growing more intensely and emotionally. It pained me to hear them like this.

Because of the cloudy and rather foggy atmosphere, the sight of the boats gradually became less clear as time passed. Soon, the formation of the boat was merely a line of bright fire in the view afar. One by one, the fire swallowed everything on the boat, breaking the line that it used to form. We merely watched the boats in utter silence.

Hiccup returned to us after watching the boats disappearing. "Let's bid farewell to Arendelle."


	13. Chapter 13

**Anna's POV**

The ship we have chosen for this occasion was a small ship, which could be crewed with merely five people and was able to carry fifteen. There were, technically, five of us. Me, Elsa, Hiccup, Blue, and Nokk. Realistically speaking, there was only one of us who had the knowledge in sailing a ship, and it was Hiccup. He very well knew of this, and was willing to show us the ropes, luckily.

We hoisted the two sails of the ship, which I almost failed in doing because I pulled the wrong rope. Once the ship began moving, we stepped to the portside of the ship to bid farewell to the fellow Arendellians. Nearly all were present; the villagers, the shopkeepers, the sailors, the soldiers, the servants. But one saddest expression belonged to the snowman we all know and loved; Olaf. All of them looked worried for us, since the weather didn't look so friendly.

"Be careful My Queens!"

"Please return to us!"

"Take care!"

We kept waving our hands until they became a speck in the view as we exited the fjord. With that, Elsa removed her magic on Nokk so then he could get on with his job. The water horse hopped into the water and made an artificial current under the ship, accelerating its speed. It wasn't crazy speedy, but it was something. Blue the literal blue Terrible Terror was sitting on the bowsprit of the ship, posing proudly as if it was pointing to a certain direction as a navigator. Meanwhile, Elsa and I were acting behalf as Hiccup's pupils at the moment.

"Right, so this rope is connected to this mast," he patted the mast next to him. "Which connects the sails. Pretty easy, right? But pay attention to how you are supposed to make the knot."

He demonstrated a knot to the bars of wood on the mast, which I completely lost track of. My eyes spectated his hands making movement, and as if by magic, he made a knot that looked rather pretty and tidy.

"Did you follow it?" Hiccup asked, gesturing to the knot.

"Nope," Elsa and I replied in unison.

He sighed. This time, he gestured us to kneel to get a closer look. "Right," Hiccup undid the knot. "Pay attention—"

The light above us suddenly lit, lightning crawling along the clouds. Seeing it, I instantly curled down, sealing my ears. The pause was killing. Even after sealing my ears, the sound of the lightning that followed still made me jump.

I opened my eyes to see the others doing the same. Blue jumped onto Hiccup's lap out of the blue while visibly shaking. No sooner had we opened our mouths to say anything than the rain started falling. All of us were soaked.

"I'm afraid we are going to learn as we go," Hiccup looked at my sister. "Elsa, tell Nokk to keep the ship stable. And stay put by the bow to break any incoming wave."

"Aye aye, captain," she rushed her way to the starboard to call for the mythical creature.

"Anna, put Blue away in the cabin and stay there," he lifted the dragon and handed it to me.

"Stay there?" I accepted the dragon. "I can't just stay there and do nothing!"

"Why did I see that coming?" Hiccup asked, sounding annoyed. "Alright, go to the wheel after putting Blue away, we are going to steer the ship together."

I smiled with a victorious feeling. "Aye aye, capt! Come on Blue."

Hiccup dashed to the ship's wheel and I to the cabin with Blue in my arms. Once inside, I placed the dragon on my bed and signaled him to stay put. Whether the dragon stay put or not, only the universe knew. I rushed out of the cabin towards the ship's wheel to see Hiccup already struggling with it.

"Need a hand?" I helped Hiccup turning the wheel to the right, but somehow the force was larger than expected. I didn't expect the wheel to be this resistant.

"Errghhh… AH!" I lost grip of the wheel, and it spun uncontrollably. It inevitably made the ship turn radically, making everything onboard imbalance, including Elsa who was standing by on the bow side.

"Whoa! Everything okay back there?" Elsa asked, balancing herself by holding the mast of the ship.

With a hand, Hiccup caught the steering wheel. He whined in pain when doing so, so I gave him a hand right away after setting my balance. "We're okay!" I replied.

"Hold steady, Anna…" Hiccup warned me sternly. I nodded obediently. "Northwest," he showed me a compass, and it indicated that the ship was indeed heading to north west direction. "No matter what, we are going to northwest in order to reach Old Berk. Okay?"

"I understand."

He smiled, giving me a thumbs up. "Good. This twelve o'clock strip right here is the strip to indicate that—"

"Guys! Look ahead!" Elsa warned. We did as she told and saw what we would've liked to see the least on our journey. A stormy sea, with only lightnings illuminating the angry waves for brief seconds. I checked the compass, and indeed, the storm was between us and Old Berk.

Even Hiccup himself looked taken aback by the discovery. He took several seconds before he could continue his explanation about the strange strip on the wheel.

"… This strip is to mark the twelve o'clock mark on the wheel, also known as, the position of the wheel which makes the ship go straight forward. Understand?" He didn't even let me reply before he warned Elsa, "Elsa! Kindly use your magic to break the waves, okay?"

"You got it!"

"Alright, just tell me where to turn, I'll help you," I said.

"For now, we'll keep avoiding the choppy water. But you'll never know if there's suddenly a wave from anywhere. Hopefully, that's where your sister comes in," he tightened his grip on the wheel. "Eyes forward."

I nervously gulped. We were really closing into the storm. Once in the area, the water that previously felt level were no longer level, even with Nokk helping to even the balance of the ship. Waves after waves crashed onto the ship's belly, splashing water to here and there. With my soaked outfit, I significantly felt colder and heavier, which, of course, were no help in the situation.

I followed Hiccup's movement on the wheel. When he turned left, I helped him out. When he turned right, I did the same. The irritatingly hard thing to do was fixing the ship's direction, other than the fact we needed to make it dead precise, the wheel was much more resistant to our force since the ship was going to a direction against our wish. It really was a sweat contest, but we didn't sweat at all under the storm. Did I mention the wheel was slippery as well? Not a single time where neither of us didn't grunt at how heavy the wheel was whenever we turned it to avoid waves.

Out of the blue, a giant wave revealed itself in front of the ship. Its height was multiple times of our own ship, so Hiccup signaled the woman for the job. "Elsa! You see this?"

"Yes!"

She sent a blast of ice that cut the wave and made a runway out of it. The belly of the ship soon climbed itself on the ice, and its weight slipped along the runway of ice seamlessly as the wave made it tilt upward. It was quite the surreal experience, ice-skating with a ship!

The ship crashed onto the water once meeting the end of the ice runway. It was a hard landing, but Nokk was there to soften it. Once back on the water, I immediately spotted more threats.

"More of them, Elsa! Starboard!" I signaled my sister the incoming waves. My sister turned to the starboard and cast more ice blast towards the waves, breaking them apart. More waves were crossing paths with our ship, and Elsa was not going to rest anytime soon.

"Bank right, Anna…" Hiccup instructed. We turned the wheel to the right. "Left!" He said. We turned to the left, not before wearing out my muscles, though.

"Guys!" Elsa called, pointing to portside. Not far from us and closing in, another gigantic wave!

"Elsa! Wait! No need to break it apart! We can ride over it!" Hiccup instructed, turning the wheel to make the boat go to the wave's direction.

"Are you sure?" I asked. Elsa gave a look that expressed the same question.

"I'm sure! Just hold onto something!"

We were getting so close to the gigantic wave, the ship started climbing it. The top of the wave was not folding yet, and it was not the moment I was looking forward to. We climbed and climbed, until I swore, we were almost as high as the lightnings above our heads. Miraculously, the ship cut through the top of the wave seamlessly. Afterwards, the ship slid down the back of the wave. Hiccup and I gripped the wheel as hard we could to keep the ship stable.

Finally, we scaled the wave safely.

"Whoo! That was fun," I commented.

"Why are we so low?" Hiccup asked.

"Low?" I raised a brow, not having a clue of what he was on about. He turned around to spectate the gigantic wave we just scaled crashing down. He turned around again to see ahead of us, to which there was nothing.

From the sky, a lightning lit the atmosphere for a brief second. That's when our jaws dropped. Another gigantic wave! It was almost like a wall of water!

"ELSA! IT'S NOW OR NEVER!" He yelled.

Luckily, she saw the obstacle ahead the same time we did. With both hands, she sent a blast of ice to cut the wave. However, the size of the wave was so big, Elsa's ice could barely cut open the obstacle. She attempted again and again. The wave kept breaking the ice with force. Soon, we learned that the wave was building with ice, and the pieces were brought towards us.

"ELSA! TAKE COVER!"

I saw her rushing behind the mast for cover before Hiccup made me kneel down with his weight, covering my body with his own.

_CRASH!_

* * *

She sat there against the mast, panting her lungs out. I knew that my sister was really powerful, but the storm had really worn her out. I slowly made my way to her.

"You're okay, Elsa?" I sat with her, crossing my legs.

She rolled her eyes to me. "Yeah…" she chuckled, "Just need to catch my breath. Wrestling with mother nature is really… tiring."

"Well, she is a thing of beauty, that's for sure," I gestured to the view ahead of us. We managed to pass the stormy sea, and were rewarded with a much calmer one with the Northern Lights above it. The lights reflected against the water, and gave the impression that the light also illuminated underwater. It really was a better sight to see than the previous lightnings.

There were several close calls, such as when Elsa's own ice crashed down on our ship, and when one wave crashed down on the ship, nearly drowning the ship if it were not for Nokk resurfacing us again. For our very first sailing, this was quite the experience. If it weren't for our teamwork, the dreamwork wouldn't be achieved.

"Have you ever seen the Northern Lights this close before, Anna?" Elsa reached for the light with an arm, and a strand of light nearly reached for it.

"Nope. Have you?"

"When I ran away from the kingdom on the ice castle, yes. But this is the closest I've ever been," she smiled.

"Sorry to interrupt, ladies."

We turned to the source of the voice. "You two should get changed and eat," Hiccup said, already having his outfit changed.

"I think I'll skip dinner," Elsa stood up, walking to the cabin. "I'll call it a day. Good night you two."

When Hiccup was not looking, Elsa glanced to me and gave me wink. Oh, I wonder what it could possibly refer to.

"Do you plan doing the same?" Hiccup asked.

I turned to the Viking. "I can't skip dinner, I'm starving," I replied, shoving my belly with a hand. "Do you?"

"I can't either."

"You know what? Wait here, I'll go get changed and grab the food," I stood on my feet. "What would you like to eat?"

He merely shrugged. "Whatever's available."

"One 'whatever's available' coming right up!"

He cracked at the joke, "don't make me wait."

Giving him a quick nudge, I left to the cabin. Inside, Elsa was already asleep on her bed. I heard a small hint of snore from her. She was not the snoring type, but I knew that wrestling with mother nature was not easy, and she did that for two hours straight.

Oh. Blue was sleeping next to her. Neat.

With as little sound as possible, I changed my outfit with dry clothes. After doing so, I opened the food cabinet and pondered at the sight of these ingredients in front of me. What could I possibly make from some bread, some beef, some lettuce, and some mayonnaise?

"Sandwich will do."

I knew there's a certain art in making a sandwich, but I was no cook. I smashed everything together and made two sandwiches on two different plates. Proud with my work, I took both plates out of the cabin, with again, as little sound as possible.

I came over to Hiccup who was sitting by the sail mast. I sat my butt down next to him. "Your 'whatever's available', kind sir."

He accepted the plate, inspecting it for a brief moment. "You sure you haven't put too much mayonnaise in it?"

"What are you talking about?" I took a bite of the dish and my mouth was immediately filled with excess mayonnaise. My tongue barely sensed anything else but the mayonnaise. Some even dripped off from the edge of my lips.

"That's what I'm talking about, chef," he nudged me playfully. "Oh well."

Hiccup took a bite of the sandwich, mayonnaise dripping out of it. His eyes immediately widened upon chewing the food. "Mhmm… Sho… gud…"

After swallowing our bites, we proceeded to laugh together.

"Well, I'll probably learn how to cook with your mom, if we have the time," I suggested. Hearing the suggestion, Hiccup shook his head in disagreement.

"Oh no. She's um… terrible. She's a terrible cook," he confessed.

"Is she?"

"Well, she has spent twenty years of her life with dragons, Anna. Not humans. I wouldn't be surprised if she's able to eat raw fish, to be frank," he took another bite of the sandwich.

I nodded in acknowledgement. "True…"

The sudden bizarre movement of the auroras in front of us attracted our attention right away. The lights began to look as if they were trying to reach the water. Inevitably, some reached us, low enough for us to feel a weird sensation when trying to reach for them. Mother nature was being kind at the moment, and she's utterly beautiful when she is.

These auroras reminded me of a story. Perhaps it could be used to break the ice.

"I once heard a story about the auroras," I began.

"Mm, tell me about it," Hiccup replied.

"Mother told me this story. It is said that our ancestors, those who have passed away, either humans or animals, the aurora is the place they head. As in their afterlife," I explained.

"So that's Valhalla up above?" Hiccup pointed to the Northern Light.

"If you put it that way, yes. That's Valhalla," I smiled.

"Looks like a pretty cool place to live in. Mkay. What's the story?"

I put my plate away on the floor to begin my narration. "There were once three hunters. They were brothers! These three brothers once tried to kill a mother bear who only tried to protect her cub. The fight took place on a very high glacier, and the oldest of the brothers was badly hurt. The bear was approaching the other two, and this was noticed by the oldest brother. He decided to do what's best, and it was to pierce his spear into the glacier, making the ice below the bear to crack, bringing the bear and himself down."

"Oh my," Hiccup spoke.

"But with that, the other two brothers were saved by this selfless act of love. When they were trying to find their brother, they found out that the bear was still alive. Determined to have a revenge, one of the brothers searched for the bear. His brother tried to snap him out of this intention, as it would not change anything. However, he didn't listen, and went on a hunt for the bear. Later on, he found the bear on top of a mountain and killed it. His revenge was now fulfilled, but at what cost?"

He placed his chin on his hand. "Go on."

"The peak of the mountain in which the revenge took place was actually no ordinary mountain; it was the very spot where the Northern Light would touch the earth. The spirits of the Northern Light were not happy to see the sadistic revenge. Seeing so, they turned the brother into a bear. Afterwards, they took the poor spirit of the bear with them. Remember the brother who tried to hold this other brother back from killing the bear? He later 'found' that the bear had killed his very last brother. And the cycle of revenge continues…"

I clapped my hands once. "The end."

He followed it with more claps. "You sure your mother told you this story?"

"She didn't," I smiled cheekily. "It's one of the books in the library. You should read it sometimes."

"Heh, I knew it," he scoffed, finishing his food and wiping off excess mayonnaise on his mouth. "What happens next?"

"What happens next… is unknown. The book which tells this story had some pages ripped off. I don't know who did it," I sighed.

"Aw."

I finished my food with one big bite. Indeed, I put too much mayonnaise, but I didn't know just how much was too much. Hopefully it wouldn't make either of us sick.

Silence once again filled the air. But it wasn't awkward. There was an entire show of colorful lights ahead of us, and I was nowhere nearing the point of being bored by it.

However, rephrasing the current situation really made me realize just how perfect the moment was. Perhaps it's time to tell him how I truly feel.

My heart once again began to race, heat building up inside of me. I looked to the Viking and saw how beautifully reflected the Northern Light on his green eyes. They were not looking at mine, but they rolled to do so when he realized that I was looking at him.

"Mmm… Something wrong, Anna?"

Oh goodness, those eyes. As if by magic, they hypnotized me. I was so drawn into them. I never replied. Instead, I leaned in towards him with closed eyes and closed the gap between our lips.

"Mm!"

I pressed my lips against his, and pulled away after a good three seconds or so.

Then I realized of what I did.

"Oh my god… did I really…" I covered my mouth, eyes bulging out. "H-Hiccup! D-Did I?..."

He replied nothing. He seemed to be as shocked as I was. Soon, I was consumed with embarrassment. "OH MY GOD, I'M SO SORRY!"

I arched my back forward to hide my red-hot face.

"A-Anna… is there… something you'd like to get off your chest?" He asked, still sounding shocked.

Slowly but surely, I lifted my chin to face him, though I still kept the bottom half of my facial features hidden away with my hands. "I… I'm sorry…"

He sighed. "Don't be. Just…"

From the looks of it, Hiccup seemed to be doing badly in finding the words he was looking for. He gestured me to help him out.

I took in a deep breath, and let it out. "What I did previously, I s-swear, I'm sure I was not myself in that moment. My body just pulled me to—"

"You… were not yourself?" He asked nervously.

"Y-Yes! I mean… I don't know… when I looked to your eyes, I was just…" We connected a gaze once again. "Goodness… I'm so sorry, Hiccup…"

"It's… okay," he chuckled nervously. "Don't sweat it. I uh…" He scratched his hair.

"…"

Silence filled the air once again. But this time, it was much more awkward. The silence was killing me slowly. To prepare myself, I readied each word on my tongue, and mentally counted down.

"I… have feelings for you, Hiccup."

He looked up to me, then away from me, remaining silent for a moment.

"… Since when?" He asked.

"Mm… recently? We've been friends for years, but my eyes were recently opened… telling me just…" I chuckled sheepishly. "Just… how much of a good guy you really are, Hiccup."

"… Define… good guy?"

"You're… handsome. You're… strong. You're… smart. You're… amazing. And I am… running out of words already, ha ha ha…" I scratched my head. "All because no words can explain just how amazing you are to me, Hiccup."

His eyes widened, his cheeks were visibly red. Mine, which were already red, reddened even more!

"T-that last part was not spoken by me! I swear, it's like somebody else took me over…" I excused.

"But did you mean it?"

I slowly smiled, looking down to the floor. "Y-yes?... And since… we are going on a dangerous adventure, I thought it would be a… waste… not to reveal my true feelings for you."

We remained silent once again, both of us finding the floor a more interesting thing to see. Seeing the process of the water drying on the wooden deck was a fascinating experience.

When Hiccup cleared his throat, I looked up to him.

"Y-you… tasted like mayonnaise," he commented. Embarrassed by the statement, my hand immediately gave my lips a wipe to make sure they were clean.

"And um… It… It's been too platonic, between us, to be frank, Anna, um…"

My heart dropped slightly at the words 'too platonic'.

"And I was… pretty comfortable with it, and I think I would prefer the um… platonic relationship that we've always had," he replied. "I'm sorry."

My heart completely dropped at the reply. But I was not going to give him the slightest hint that I was disappointed with his response. I toughened myself up mentally.

"… I-It's okay…"

I couldn't make myself look into his eyes. I was just rejected by my crush, and it hurt me. I remained silent for a little while, until he grabbed my plate and stood up. He told me about something with going to bed, but I was so entrapped in my thoughts that I didn't hear him.

_SPLASH_

I looked up to see Nokk standing on the water next to our small ship.

"Nokk? Need something?" Hiccup asked, approaching the water horse. Not taking another moment, the horse bit Hiccup by the hand and pulled him into the water.

"WHOAA—"

"HICCUP!"

**I am… terrible in writing romantic scenes. Please, bear with me.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Yes, the story Anna told to Hiccup is literally 'Brother Bear' :)  
**

**Hiccup's POV**

Nokk kept pushing me down and down with its head while 'galloping' underwater. Safe to say, I panicked. I never had a chance to take a breath before being dragged away. So, it was only a matter of seconds until I began taking in seawater instead of air.

However, I sensed something pulling my hand. It was hard to make out with my blurry vision, but it was definitely Anna.

She pulled me toward the surface. Later, we broke through it. I immediately threw up all of the water that I had previously swallowed.

"You okay, Hiccup?" She asked. I coughed even more before I could even reply.

"Uh… yeah… W-What's Nokk's problem—WHOA!"

Before I could even finish, Nokk had dragged me away again. This time, the water horse was in the form of a mere torrent. The spirit pushed me by the belly down and down into the depth. Again, the spirit took me by surprise, so I never had the change to take a breather, again.

I wiggled my body around to break free of the spirit's grasp. The part of my body that contacted with the spirit was by the stomach, so I 'pushed' the water away from it. Somehow, I broke free of it! I looked up to see Anna making her way down to me. I swam my way upwards and caught her arm in the way. Once again, we resurfaced again!

"Haaaa! H-Hiccup, I need to tell you something!" She said.

"W-What?"

"Nokk's unique characteristic is… kind of sadistic, in a way. But he despises lies! And he will drown anyone who has a spoken a lie to someone!" She explained in a hurry. I raised a brow in confusion.

"A lie?"

"Yes! You must've lied about something to me, tell me the truth and that way he will—HICCUP!"

I was dragged again, by the foot! But this time, the horse oddly remained on the surface in the form of a torrent of water. Anna kept her grip on my hands tight and was dragged along as well. She positioned herself to have her feet 'dragging' across the water by using our connected hands as a balancing point.

"Just tell me the truth and he will let go of you!" Anna finished her explanation.

I pondered for a moment. The only lie that I had told her was how I truly felt about our relationship. But I had good reasons for it. However, seeing this was a life-and-death situation, I spat the truth.

"Alright… Anna! I do have feelings for you! It was never platonic!"

Right away, I felt the grasp on my foot was no more. Slowly, we began to decelerate to a full stop.

"You… do?" Anna asked while keeping herself afloat on the water.

I nervously gulped. "Yeah… You sure you didn't secretly tell Nokk to drag me away because you were upset with my response?"

She frowned immediately. "Had I done that, I would've never come to save you," she gave my nose a 'boop'. "But… why lied about it?" Her tone screamed disappointment.

"I…"

Nokk surfaced from the water in its normal form with us on its back. The water horse gave us a ride back to the ship. We hopped off the horse once arrived and the horse returned into the water.

"I… am not in a condition to form a relationship. Or situation. Whatever. The point is…" I shoved my hands together to create some bits of warmth. "I am about to depart into a dangerous adventure to save what's left of Berk and possibly save the dragons as well, and I just think… a relationship is not what I'm going to need in a hurry. I'm sorry, Anna. I didn't want to say this to you, so I panicked, and I lied."

The Queen of Arendelle processed my statement for a while. While doing so, the door of the cabin opened abruptly, revealing Elsa with two blankets on her arms.

"Elsa…" I spoke.

"Shhh, why don't you two go inside, _*yawn*,_ and I'll stand by outside?" She gave the towels to us.

"Have you been eavesdropping?" Anna asked.

Her sister smiled mischievously. "Perhaps. Now go inside, get changed, _again_ , and continue your… talk."

It sounded like the best idea there was; the night was freezing cold, and we were both soaking wet. It didn't take long until one of us began shivering. So, we went into the cabin and had ourselves dried and changed. Of course, we gave each other the utmost privacy while doing so.

"I'm done, you can turn around, Hiccup."

With that, I turned around to see a dried Anna in a different attire. She patted the spot next to her on the bed. I sat down with her after being signaled.

"So… you were going to say…" I started.

"Well, to be honest… I'm quite saddened," she shoved her arm, looking away. "I really like you… But I guess I'll have to respect your decision."

"I… really like you, too, Anna," I took her hands and kept them inside mine. "I think you're the most amazing woman I've ever met in my life. You're smart. You're gorgeous. You radiate positivity even in the most negative situation!"

Her cheeks were visibly starting to redden. "That almost sounded like an insult."

I scoffed. "It was."

She slapped my arm while smiling. "Hiccup!"

"Haha… And you're… incredibly supportive… and I'm already running out of words as well," I admitted. "I guess words can't describe you enough since you're that amazing to me, Anna."

Anna simply looked away with a smile and a deep blush on each of her cheeks. She spoke of nothing.

"But, again…" I sighed. "We're about to depart to…"

"I know. It's okay," she cut, looking up to me. "At least… now I know the truth, it certainly makes me feel better. And Hiccup, we will go through this together, and we will make it out. We will succeed."

The smile she had on her lips screamed confidence, which relieved me nicely. I returned the smile and scooched closer to her to kiss her by the hair. The queen didn't really take it in nicely; she hid her face in her knees, probably embarrassed by my action.

"You… okay?" I asked.

"No?" She replied.

"Okay… I'll tell your sister to come in," I stood up. "You should sleep."

I still earned no response. I walked away to the door.

"Good night, Hiccup."

Her farewell sounded muffled, and after turning around to the girl herself, I could see why. Now she was hiding her face with a pillow. What a cutie.

"Good night, Anna."

I walked out of the cabin. I thought I'd spot Elsa right away, but she was nowhere to be found. But then I heard soft snoring behind me, and there she was, sleeping while standing on the wheel. Our conversation was that loud, apparently?

"Elsa," I called, approaching her. She gave no response.

"Elsa," I nudged her side.

"Uh—huh?"

"I'll do tonight's shift. You go to bed," I told her.

"Mmm… how did it go, bud?" She asked in her sleepy tone.

"What 'it'?" I raised a brow.

"Ya know…" She nudged me. "She had her eyes open on the moments that you would spend with her, eyeing on every chance there is. She took it, didn't she?"

I let out a chuckle. "She did."

"What did you say?" She asked with full curiosity. It's as if she was never sleepy.

"You know what? Why don't you ask your sister about that?" I pushed her to the cabin. "Sounds good? Of course it does," I opened the cabin door for her. "Good night!"

Before coming in, she exchanged a glance with me, "Alright, Viking boy."

With that, I made my way to the wheel. I checked the compass and the stars, which was quite hard since the northern light was on the way. Calculating the course mentally, I calculated that we were still on course. With the speed supported by Nokk, the water spirit that happened to despise lies so much that it would literally 'kill' them, we were to arrive within only a day and a half or two days.

However, two days of… what could possibly a very awkward journey.

It's no longer a secret that we liked each other so much. The only difference was the intention to date. Judging from her, Anna wanted to date me as early as possible. I suppose if there were anything to happen to either of us that would eventually result in both of us being separated, indeed, it would make a good idea to reveal each other's feeling as soon as possible, if, let's say the worst outcome took place; the two of us no longer seeing each other after this. Sure, it would leave a scar that would take ages, if not, forever to heal if one were to lose a better half of their own. But at least, there was nothing left unspoken.

I guess it's the matter of the regret of being unable to reveal your truest feelings to someone because the person is already dead _versus_ having already revealed that but you are left with a mental scar that you will most likely never heal from. But then again, either condition would still scar you severely if the person were to be gone from your life.

Perhaps, Anna's decision might not be as terrible as it sounded previously.

Maybe I should be 'eyeing' for an opportunity, like Elsa said, from now.

Or I should just compose the words first.

Ever since then, I started imagining of what I had to say. I would practice it in private, but onboard, there were only the three of us and a Terrible Terror. There was no such thing as privacy except when we really had to be private to do our own errands.

Not that I was complaining. Initially, I expected the atmosphere between us would be dense, or awkward, but Anna remained so… Anna-esque. She was still the bubbly queen I knew, even bubblier, to be frank. I have never seen a person with more energy while sailing, since sailing could get very boring. However, we kept ourselves entertained, either intentionally or unintentionally. One time, Blue nearly burned my bed, and Elsa was having a horse ride with Nokk far away to put away the fire. The other time, Anna once again put too much mayonnaise in our sandwiches. The other _other_ time, we played charades until Anna fell asleep on the deck.

We had a lot of time for ourselves to bond, put it simply.

And right now, it was nearing dawn. The sun was on the far east, rising ever so slowly. I was on my shift, standing alone by the wheel.

My eyes spotted something far ahead. It took a while for me to make out, but it was soon as clear as crystal. The archipelago that I was very fond of. Old Berk.

"I'm home."

**Now, I would like you guys to look up "Frozen 2: Kristoff's Lie" on YouTube. It explains a concept of Nokk that never made it to the movie. As Anna explained, Nokk would drag people who have lies in their hearts into the water. Very hardcore indeed. Though it would've been a great arc for Nokk in the movie, I can't see this making it to a movie where the audience are mostly children. Thank you for reading! I know it's a short chapter, but I had no intention of squeezing anything into this very chapter.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hiccup's POV**

I rushed my way to the cabin to wake the sisters up. Barging my way in, I spotted Elsa already up from her slumber, sitting on her own bed while caressing Blue.

"Elsa! We're here!"

She slowly turned to me. The looks on her eyes suggested that she was still sleepy. "Huhhh?"

"We're here! Old Berk!"

Her face immediately brightened up. She rushed over to her sister's bed and shook her by the shoulder. "Anna! We have arrived!"

"Nghh…" She rolled to see her sister. "Berk?"

"Where else?" I scoffed. "Ready yourself, come on!" I made my way back out of the cabin to the wheel. I steered the ship to pass the statues my people built generations ago. The fire inside the statutes' mouths were put out by age, sadly. However, we were here.

The sisters came out of the cabin to join me with Blue hanging on Elsa's shoulder. The two were in awe by the view, their mouths gaping open. The sisters have only visited Old Berk once in their lives, and a lot of changes had been made ever since their visit. The colorful buildings I have architected were still standing proudly. The only difference was the degradation of the color of them, which had aged out throughout the years. Seeing the view, Blue immediately flew off to the isle by himself.

"Awh, Blue!" Elsa called.

"Let him, Els. The dragon misses his other buddies," Anna said.

We spectated the dragon going farther and farther, until it became a mere speck in the view. My eyes spotted the dragon landing on one of the cliffs, and I saw a group of people welcoming it. It was hard to really determine, but from the looks of it, I saw a figure peeking from the cliff. The figure waved a hand, which we returned with ours.

"Heyyy!" Anna called, seemingly spotting what I was seeing as well.

The figure vanished from our sights. With our closing distance, I made the ship dock by the dock that sat below the gigantic cliffs. I released the anchor of the ship and hopped off the ship with the sisters. Nokk breached the surface of the water, standing magically on the water. Elsa turned the form of the spirit into ice, allowing it to walk on land to follow us.

"It seems… very lonely," Elsa commented.

I placed my hands on my hips. "Dead, more like. I never thought I'd visit this place again."

"Hiccup, look!" Anna said, pointing at the top of the cliff. Some people were descending down the wooden elevator that bridged the dock and the main island of the archipelago. I rushed my way towards the elevator, and the faces soon became clear; my mom! Eret! Astrid! Tuffnut! Fishleg!

"GUYS!" I screamed on top of my lungs.

"Hiccup?", "That's Hiccup!", "It really is!"

The faces of these people brightened up when seeing my arrival. Once touching down on the dock, they spread their arms and I jumped into them. Mother gave me kisses in the middle of the hugs, while the others were giving my rubs by the head.

"We thought you were dead!" Astrid said.

"Lad, you really did scare me there!" Eret said.

I let myself melt in the moment and pulled away. All of us had tears building up on our eyes. Soon, they noticed the feminine figures behind me. They simply gave the guys a wave of hand, presumably not wanting to interfere the moment. Mother was the only one who had a smile upon seeing them, the others looked suspicious.

"Is this the Arendellian duo?" She asked. From her back emerged Blue, gnawing as if saying 'yes'. "And the… blue horse?"

"Y-Yeah. Mom, meet Elsa," I gestured to Elsa, "And Anna," I gestured to Anna. "And Nokk. The water spirit of Northuldra, a land north from Arendelle. In short, _we have a lot of catching up to do._ "

"Hello," the sisters greeted in unison.

**Anna's POV**

The Berkians did the same greeting gesture to reply our greeting. It was obvious that I was happy to see Hiccup finally meeting some actual Berkians, however, it was more obvious that Elsa and I didn't want to ruin the moment for him. So, we kept a distance from the scene.

"Queen Elsa, Princess Anna," Hiccup's mother approached us, and the rest followed her. She placed a hand on her chest, "Thank you for bringing my son back. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't express my gratitude enough!"

The rest did the same as well, expressing their gratitude to us.

"It's o-okay! He's our friend," I replied. "And um, there has been a change in the throne. I'm the queen now, and my sister, Elsa, she is, um," I turned to her, giving her a look that said 'how do I explain this?'

She waved it off.

"Working somewhere else!" I said. The explanation, of course, placed a big question mark above their heads. "Like I said, it's my pleasure. Had my guards not found him in the Therondian ship, we would've never found him. So really, it was not either of us that found him."

"Theron what now?" The blonde female asked.

"Like I said, Astrid," Hiccup emerged from behind them. "We have a lot of catching up to do. Where are the others?"

All of them gave Hiccup an uneasy look, which was most likely due to his question, I was guessing.

* * *

Here we were, in the village hall.

The hall was illuminated by the light reaching from the giant door of the hall and the large torches behind us. Hiccup, Elsa, Nokk, and I were behind this large and long tables. Ahead of us, there were only fifteen people, including the ones that had welcomed us by the dock. And the flock of Terrible Terrors.

I looked to Hiccup. He was trying so hard to hide it away, but disappointment was certainly there inside him. There were only fifteen survivors! Only fifteen out of thousands of Berkians made it out of the raid. This hall was certainly designed to fit thousands of people, and with only fifteen presents, it was quite the empty view from my perspective.

Since everyone was present the moment we sat on the chairs provided for us, Hiccup never sat down on one.

"Is anyone else coming?" He asked.

They took their time to respond, until the blonde male responded, whom I learned was named Tuffnut, "This is all, Hiccy."

Hiccup slowly fisted the table. "…Right, well, no need to be formal, come closer, all of ya," Hiccup gestured. With that, all of them circled the long table.

"Okay. First of all, it's very good to see you all in one piece. I never thought that there were survivors, to begin with. I mean, Eret," he gestured to the black-haired male. "You were there."

"Indeed, I was, chief," he replied.

"In the middle of the attack, the leader of the enemy told us that they would stop the slaughter if I turned myself in. It was… a no brainer for me. My people were caked in their own blood, and I wanted to see no more drop of blood. So, I turned myself in," Hiccup explained. His explanation was not taken nicely by the survivors. "Of course, as you witnessed, it was a lie. They kept killing Berkians, and… I will take full responsibility for this. The deaths of your friends and families are all on… me. I never invested enough labor into the island's defense system, and I brought this chaos upon you."

I tried to reach my hand to him, "Hiccup, you can't possibly…"

"Shh, it's okay."

I shut my mouth afterwards. Later, Hiccup walked around the table to the front of the remaining Berkians. He faced them and knelt down. His hands met together, face looking down to the floor.

"I'm… I'm sorry."

I exchanged a glance with Elsa, and she seemed to be thinking what I was thinking. What a leader he was.

"Stand up, Hiccup," his mother, Valka, commanded. Her son rose on his feet slowly. "I speak behalf the rest of us, and all is forgiven."

Hiccup simply stared at his mother, still looking unsure of her statement. He walked backwards back to the table where we were. The Viking sighed before continuing.

"As I was saying. I turned myself in, and somehow, the leader spared me and planned to 'sell' me somewhere else," he explained.

"Sell you?" Fishleg asked.

"Yes. It will be explained later. So, I was planned to be sold. I was taken into their ship, and frankly, was about to give up. But then, the ship stopped, _miraculously_ stopped, by Arendelle; an ally we are very fond of," Hiccup gestured to me and Elsa. "The silvers that the buildings stood on, the weapons you wield, anything that has silver in it, they are Arendellian."

"Care to take it from here… Queen Anna?" Hiccup sat on the table. I nodded to his request and stood up.

"Sure. Hello everybody. I am… Queen Anna, this is my sister, Elsa."

"Hello!" Elsa greeted.

"Now… Yes, as some of you have heard, we found Hiccup in the Therondian ship. The name of the kingdom of these people is Therondia. Therondia is a kingdom south from Arendelle, and yes, they have technology so advanced, and they invested a lot of it in their military. To be fair, the technology that Berk possessed was quite advanced when I first visited this land. However, Therondian's is… well, quite more advanced, let's say. So, it's not entirely your fault, Hiccup," I placed a hand on his shoulder, and he merely half-turned to me.

I continued, "We found Hiccup in a pretty bad shape, and took care of him afterwards. We kept the crew of the ship imprisoned to interrogate them. What we learned from the interrogation was the fact that Therondians are heavily involved in human trafficking market."

"Human trafficking?" One Viking asked in disbelief.

"Yes. But they sell people with unique features, either it's their title, or where they are from, whatever that makes them unique. Apparently, there are demands for this… unfortunately. And when there are demands, one or plenty will try to fulfill it to gain profit."

The Berkians murmured to each other.

"And then, several days ago, on one night, Hiccup and I discovered the letter from Valka, and immediately set off to an expedition!" I finished. "It's still something that I can hardly take in. We are so lucky."

"How would Blue know if he has spotted 'Hiccup' anyway? Don't think a Terrible Terror would recognize a familiar person by the face," Hiccup suddenly asked. His mother gave her a cheeky smile. From behind her, she accepted something that looked like a prosthetic leg. Could it be?

"My prosthetic!"

Hiccup walked excitingly to the object, accepting it in his grasps. He used his fingers to fiddle with its mechanism, most likely giving it a test.

"We found it floating on our way to here," his mother said. "The dragon used its smell."

"Yeah, you must've left a buttload of sweat on it, even after floating on the water for days." Tuffnut said. All of us cringed at his statement, really wishing he had never mentioned it.

"Ahh, okay…" Hiccup examined the object from every angle before placing it on the table. I sensed a nudge from my side. I looked to the source, and it was Elsa.

"Anna, I think you're forgetting something…" she spoke in a low volume. "The dragons…"

It hit me. How could I forget?

"Oh yes, but the most important thing is… The Therondians have learned about the dragon haven you talked about, the Edge of the World. How? We do not know. Hiccup and I suspected that they are going to capture the dragons to sell them because of their rarity," I crossed my arms. This news immediately turned the small crowd frightened. They murmured to each other in disbelief.

"And we need to move as fast as we can to protect the dragons. We must head back to New Berk again!" Hiccup proposed.

"And do what? We are outnumbered! We have no chance against them!" Astrid argued.

"You have me."

I turned to Elsa, who was on her feet already. "I… have an incredibly powerful ice magic inside me. I am willing to use it for this cause, to protect the dragons, _and_ my people as well. Why? Therondia recently signed a treaty to be allies with Arendelle, and having learned their devilish side, I see no more point in continuing the alliance."

She summoned a small flurry of ice with a clap. Everyone was mesmerized by the sight, but one lady Viking was not buying it right away.

"Some snow? Is that how you're gonna help us?" The lady mocked.

My sister palmed her hand, and released a large blast of ice towards the opening of the door of the hall. That very much sealed the lady's mouth, and her mouth only. The others looked amazed by the sight of my sister's power.

Hiccup cleared his throat. "We do, indeed, have Elsa on our side. We will first do a recon mission. We head to New Berk to see what's what. Gather as many intel as possible, then we decide what's next after that."

"Hiccup, how do we approach the island without being noticed?" Eret asked.

"To maintain stealth, we will make sure that we arrive during dark and… if you remember, there's a waterfall on the north side of the island. There is a cave behind the waterfall, and I bet the Therondians have no idea about that place. We will reside there while collecting information," Hiccup explained. Once again, everybody murmured to each other about the plan. Hearing from the words that slipped into my ears, I was positive that they were feeling positive about the whole idea. That is, until Astrid raised her hand.

"Astrid?" Hiccup said.

"This idea… is very you, I must say," Astrid shrugged. Suddenly, she raised her axe. "I'm with him! Who else?"

"Me!" Fishleg exclaimed.

"Aye!" One Viking followed.

"Me!", "Count me in!", "Yeah!", "I am!"

The enthusiasm was pleasing to hear, especially for Hiccup. He looked proud to the fifteen Berkians in front of him. The last to reply was Valka. Casually, she stepped forward from the crowd.

"You know I am always with you, son," she softly said.

"… Thank you, everybody. We will leave at dawn, for now, pack up your needs," Hiccup sighed. Judging from his pose, he seemed to be in a need for sleep. "Meeting dismissed."

With the dismissal, the Vikings walked to leave the hall to prepare their things. The Viking turned around to us. "Hey… thanks, I owe you two big time."

"Don't sweat it," I assured. "We're in this together."

He crossed his arms uneasily. "I can't thank you enough-*yawn* seriously."

"Hiccup, you need some sleep. You haven't had any, right?" I asked.

He nodded, sleepily. "Yeah… I agree. Damn, I really shouldn't be sleepy after having a reunion with my people."

"It's alright, Hicc," Elsa said. "You were on night's shift with the wheel."

"Hfft… Alright. Want to see my old house?"

* * *

It's been two hours or so since Elsa and I were taken to Hiccup's house for the moment. Hiccup's room was upstairs, so we left him be to sleep. The interior of the house was in a desperate need for some cleaning, so Elsa and I were on cleaning duty for the past two hours.

By saying cleaning duty, I meant cleaning-and-inspecting-any-interesting-Viking-esque-objects duty. The helmets, the shields, the books, the fireplace, heck; the spoon! Everything was in the shape that neither of us had seen previously. The interior of the house was relatively small, and it would've certainly taken us a mere thirty minutes or so to clean it had we not stop to fulfill our curiosity with the things around the house.

Once done with the chore, we sat down on a couch. Suddenly, Elsa sprung up again on her feet. "I'm gonna take Nokk for a walk around the village, you wanna come?"

I waved it off. "I think I'll stay."

"Suit yourself, Your Majesty," she nudged my side. "See you in a bit!"

With that, she left the house.

I looked to the low ceiling of the house. It was probably the lowest ceiling I have ever seen. It struck me with a question of how these people lived inside here while they are gigantic. I could only wonder how.

But then it hit me. I should check on Hiccup.

I made my way up the wooden stairs. There wasn't any corridor or anything but the door to his room right away. I knocked it and realized that it was never closed. The knock I made gave me a small view of the room, and immediately, I spotted Hiccup! He was sitting by the window.

"Hiccup?" I slowly opened the door.

The Viking turned to me, almost startled. "Oh hey! Hey, where has Elsa gone to?" He pointed a thumb to the view outside of the window.

"She's taking Nokk for a walk around the village. She really is in the mood for exploration," I replied, approaching him. I quickly realized something off, something odd from him. His beard, it's gone? It was not entirely gone, per se. He still had some, but they were definitely cut.

"Did you shave?" I asked.

He smiled playfully. "I did."

"Why?" I chuckled.

"Thought I could use some new looks, so then the Therondians wouldn't recognize me. The Odin's beard is a very distinctive look that would differ me from other men in this world, I'm afraid," he said proudly.

I crossed my arms. "Right… You look good with that cut," I sat on the window, joining him.

"Thanks."

We both turned to the view that the window provided. The sky was clear, the sea looked calm, but to be frank, the silence of the village was a little disheartening, considering most of its inhabitants were all dead. I bet Old Berk was crowded, since Hiccup mentioned that one of the reasons Berk moved to the new island was because of overcrowded population. They needed more space. But now, its earie silence was deafening and unpleasant to hear. Sure, there was the wind, but that was it.

"Very silent, isn't it?" Hiccup asked.

I looked up to him. "I was just thinking of that."

"Fifteen people… I expected at least a good… fifty," he sighed.

"Don't blame yourself for that. Look at it this way, there _are_ survivors of the attack. You can't argue with that, can you?"

He scoffed. "I sure can't."

It was a vain effort of giving the Viking some measure of optimism. At least, I tried.

"Did you sleep?" I asked.

"I didn't."

"Why?"

"… I'm just overwhelmed. Within the next several days, we are about to enter the enemy's territory, which used to be my home. So much for irony, huh?" He replied, not batting an eye to me.

I was going to verbally strengthen him, but then another method came to mind. I simply scooched closer to him and hugged him. I ran my right hand up and down his back, the other on his scruffy hair.

"You're going to be alright, Hiccup," I whispered on his ear.

He was silent for a moment. Then, he lifted his arms to hug me back. But then, his hands reached for my shoulders and gently pushed me away. After creating a gap, he closed it again by kissing me.

It took me by surprise, but I welcomed it. I kissed him back.

Hiccup pulled away, resting his forehead against mine, our eyes connecting in an unbreakable gaze. "What will I do without you?"

Good Lord. Those eyes. I was sure my heart was on the verge of failure just because of them. "You'll always have me," I assured.

He smiled endearingly, then closed the gap once again. I returned the kiss passionately, pulling myself closer to him.

I pulled away briefly, "Hiccup, does this mean we're…"

"Nothing more exciting than love in the battlefield," He smiled.

"Of course, love in the battlefield… I love the sound of it," I kissed his smile and we continued again.

After a good minute or two, we pulled away. We checked our surroundings because we quickly realized that we were making out on the window, a spot very much exposed to many eyes. Luckily, there was nobody but us.

"I wanna show you something," Hiccup suddenly said.

"What?" I smiled.

"The past. Let's find your sister first."


	16. Chapter 16

**Hiccup's POV**

"Any idea where she's gone to particularly?" I asked.

"…"

She kept looking at the ground. Having no reply, I nudged Anna by the side while walking. "Hey."

"Oh! You were saying something?"

That finally brought her to reality. "You were in your head, smiling like a goof. What is it?"

"Ehh… Ah ha ha, well," she looked to the ground again. "Just taking it all in, you know, this."

She gestured to our hands, which were entangled together. Maybe she was not used to it, but I took it right away after leaving the house almost by reflex. "You want to let go?" I asked.

"NO! I mean," she cleared her throat, tightening her grip on my hand. "I don't want to. I'm fine."

I playfully gave her a push. "Suit yourself. I was asking if you knew where your sister—" I looked up ahead and saw the devil herself, walking side by side with Nokk. "Oh there she is."

I let go of Anna's hand. "Elsa!"

She turned to the source of the call, and so did Nokk. "Hey! You're awake already?"

I scoffed. "I never slept. Anna and I want to go to the cove, wanna come?"

Elsa processed my offer, but then she seemed distracted by something else, something behind me. I looked behind to see Anna very much in her own head again.

"Hm, something happened," Elsa spoke. "Between you two."

Goodness, she read us like a book! "Uhh, not sure what you're on about?" I pretended to be dumb.

"Anna," Elsa called. Almost like startled, Anna perked up.

"Yeah?"

"Something happened between you two, I can tell," Elsa said judmentally, though she did that purposefully. Her smile explained everything.

"Uh… no?" Anna said.

Her sister sighed. "Oh well, guess Nokk will have to do his job again in finding the truth," she threatened _proudly_. Her remark reminded me of what the horse was really capable of when it came to finding the truth.

"Geez, Elsa, you wouldn't really do that, would you?" I asked.

Before she could even reply, Nokk let out a _neigh_ as if he was saying 'yes'. The spirit horse took one step forward to me, making me step back.

"Haha, spill it. You two are together now, aren't you?" Elsa once again read us. I shared a look with Anna, who was as nervous as I was since we knew how threatening Nokk could be, despite having Elsa by his side. Seeing the two of us were nervous, we gave each other an uneasy nod.

"Ehe, you got us," I admitted.

"I knew it!" She crossed her arms. "Let me guess, Anna gave you a shave, Hiccup?"

"Nuh uh, you read that one wrong," Anna blew a raspberry. "He shaved by himself."

Hearing this, Elsa looked up to Nokk, who later gave her a nod, confirming the truth. "Very well, it was bound to happen, really."

"Really?" I asked curiously.

She scoffed sarcastically. "You're not that blind, are you, Hiccup?"

"My vision is still quite good, I'd say," I shrugged.

She rolled her eyes away. "You are _that_ blind. Anyway, the cove, you said?"

I wanted to question more, but I decided to let go. "Uh huh, you wanna come?"

"I'll catch with you two later, I want to help the villagers prepare their things first," Elsa pointed a thumb to her back. "I think it's best to really socialize with them before we embark to the next journey."

"You know the way to the cove?" Anna asked.

"You've forgotten already, Anna?" She climbed onto Nokk. "Remember our visit to here years ago? I got lost and reached the cove eventually."

Anna's mouth rounded in acknowledgement. "Oh yeah… I remember that."

"Well, you two should spend more time together first. I'll be there, _maybe,_ " she playfully smirked. With that, she commanded the horse to go to the direction she was headed to previously.

I turned to the younger sister. "Your sister is really capable of reading people, isn't she?"

Anna started walking. "Well, during her time as the queen, she had to meet a lot of villagers who needed her help. She gained a lot of experience in determining people with true and pure intention. Not all Arendellians are nice and honest, you know?"

"Well, same goes here. Vikings are really hard to manage, especially when they are hungry," I scoffed.

"Hm. Guess I'm a Viking too," she suggested. The statement made me raise a brow, walking off her side. Seeing so, Anna immediately took a grip by my arm and forced me to walk along with her. I caught her head and messed it playfully.

We proceeded to walk along in silence. Along the way, Anna seemed to be preoccupied with the buildings around us. Many of them were colorful, but if we were to include the color of burn marks, ashes, and color degradation, would it still be considered as a part of the color? Not to mention some buildings had already collapsed, especially the ones used for the dragons to stand on.

"Not so in order anymore, isn't it?" I scoffed.

She turned to me. "Well, yeah. I can't deny that. Whatever happened that caused this?"

"Grimmel. This was his doing. Remember?" I replied.

"Ah. Yes, Grimmel. Gee, what a havoc he caused," she scanned the ruins.

"Yeah… and I may have not been entirely honest with you, Anna," I confessed sheepishly. She turned to me instantly.

"About what?"

"It's not something big. You see, I just remembered that when I proposed taking you two to my house, my house was no longer in the original shape. Grimmel's dragon blew a hole on the roof to enter it, and next thing I knew when I came out, Berk was in chaos. A fiery chaos."

She looked surprised. "So, what you're telling me is that…"

"The house we were from is not mine. It was someone else's. Mine is… that one," I pointed to a house which perfectly fitted my description. A hole on the roof, and was all black due to the fire it once was consumed in. I took her to the front of the house.

"Oh my…" Anna breathed.

"Well, since we're here, wanna come check it out?" I asked.

"Of course I want to," she smiled.

I walked up to the entrance and pushed the burned door, which collapsed right away after the push. But that quickly revealed the surprising condition of the interior. Everything was, weirdly, still in shape and seemed to be still in their place, perhaps just hollower, since most of my stuff were taken to New Berk when we departed away from here. But the fireplace, the couch, the kitchen, everything was still there. No sign of looters' activity.

"Ah, everything seems to be finer than I imagined," I commented.

"Finer?" Anna asked.

"I just thought that the place would've been looted, you know? Or maybe nobody has stepped a foot ever since we left," I sat against the wall, admiring the hole on the roof that Grimmel's dragon made. From there, light made its way towards the center of the interior, illuminating everything.

"Well it's a good thing then," Anna walked around while looking, and her foot accidentally hit an object. A Viking helmet. She picked up the helmet, putting it on afterwards.

"Hellow Lady Viking~" I smirked.

"Hello, kind sir. Would you be interested if I flexed these raw," she posed to show off the muscles in her arms, "Vikingness?"

I cringed at the sight.

"Right. Let's go upstairs, my room," I walked up to the stairs and she followed, keeping her helmet on. Once again, within a push, the door to my room snapped from its joints. Its collapse made some dust fly around, which we had to get rid by waving our hands around.

And to my surprise, my room was still… the room I remembered. Just blacker due to being burned years ago.

"Ahh… still in shape, I see," I commented. Anna took another look around the room, and I did mine. I opened a compartment chest and the content colored me shock.

"I didn't bring these to New Berk?" I pulled out pieces of outfit that I would wear years ago. They consisted of shoulder pads, armor piece, belts, forearm piece, and more. The one that really brought back nostalgia was the one buried under all of these. I pulled it out and admired it from every angle.

"I remember that," Anna spoke from behind.

It was my flying helmet that I wore before I made the final fireproof flying suit.

"You do?" I turned to her, standing up. "You have good memories."

I slipped the helmet on Anna, and it fitted perfectly!

"It doesn't smell weird or anything, right?" I asked, chuckling while seeing her eyes through the helmet.

"Don't think so. It's quite comfortable here," her voice sounded echoey as she fixed the helmet's position, and that's moment I realized that she was holding something in her hand.

"You found another goodie?" I took the object, and it was the very first prototype of my inferno blade.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask. What is this?"

I checked for the ammunition inside the handle of the blade. Within a press of a button, a piece of blade retracted out of the handle. Within a press of another button, flame consumed the blade instantly. Anna flinched a little, but she seemed to be more consumed in awe than fear of fire.

"This is the very first prototype of the inferno blade. I think it should be working just fine," I pressed the button to put out the fire.

"It must be called a prototype because of something, right?" She raised a brow.

"It will do. I want you to have it. For self-defense."

Anna looked up to me in surprise, taking off the helmet. "For real?"

"Yeah. Which one do you want? The blade or the helmet?" I asked.

She placed a finger on her chin, inspecting both items in question. "Umm… tough one…"

"It's a trick question. Have both of them," I pushed both items to her. She silently punched the air in victory. Putting on the helmet once again, the queen posed as if she was about to strike someone with the blade. Of course, seeing that we were alone, she gave me a swing with the blade. It bounced off my body.

"Ah, I just realized, the edge of the blade is not sharp," she commented, looking at the edge of the blade.

"That's because it was never meant to cut through flesh. You turn on the fire with this," I placed her thumb on the button that would ignite the fire, "And you proceed to… scare people off with it. With the correct technique, you could also gain a dragon's trust by imitating that you control the fire, but I don't think we will be doing any of that anytime soon," I explained.

"So… What if the enemy is not scared by the sight of my flaming sword?" Anna asked.

"You fight them, but you mostly parry their attacks. Try to catch your enemy's weapon between the gap," I inserted a finger between the gap of the blade, "and pull it to throw it away. And you will have one unarmed enemy fighting you with a flaming sword."

She processed my explanation for a moment. "What if all else fails?"

"If everything fails, use the pointy bit," I showed her the tip of the blade, the only part of the blade that can slice through flesh. "But only as a last resort."

She nodded. "Got it."

"Alright, my pupil. Let's go to the cove," I gestured her to come. She saved her new blade in her purse and used the strap of the helmet to hang it on her belt. We walked out of the house and gave the house a wave before we continued our walk to the cove.

"I never asked, what's in the cove?" Anna started.

"It's the place where I first met Toothless."

She gasped. "Really? Wow! What a place that Elsa has gone lost to," she snorted sarcastically.

"Mhm. That was like… what," I stopped at the 'border' of the village, the change of terrain that separated the village and the woods. There was a drop that needed us to jump to continue the journey. "Four years ago?"

"Time really does fly," Anna asked. Before I could even tell her of what to do, she already slid herself down the slope. She was gone into the bushes.

"You okay?" I called.

"Yeah! Come down here!" She replied from the bushes.

With that, I slid down the slope through the bushes. Next thing I knew, I landed right next to herself.

"Don't be so rash, Anna, you'll get yourself injured," I walked along her side.

"Oh come on, when you see a slope like that, you are to jump right away no matter what," she excused. Right. "Which way?"

I looked up to see the woods giving not a single hint of which way to take next. Luckily, my memory was there to help.

"This way."

With memory as the only guidance there was, the two of us finally reached the cove. It was within sight, but one important detail I wanted to show to Anna was not in the cove.

"That's the cove. But if I'm not mistaken… ah," I stopped by a broken bark of tree. Anna didn't seem to be particularly amused with what I was showing her.

"This is the very tree that Toothless hit when he crashed, after I shot him down. And around there…" I pointed at a space between the tree and the entrance to the cove, "Would be the spot where I freed him!"

Anna chuckled. "Must've been scary to release a dragon."

"Scary… no. I was more like… determined when I was cutting him free from the tangles of the bola I shot him with," I explained, heading to the entrance of the cove. "Sure, Toothless did pin me down to threaten me afterwards, animal instinct, who am I kidding? But… what happened next…"

"Is history," she entered the cove and scanned the surroundings.

"I was going to say some good years of friendship, but yeah, that too," I shrugged. "Well, here we are, the cove. The place where I, technically, raised him for several weeks. And, of course, where your sister got lost."

"Pfft… well, wouldn't be a bad place to be lost, to be honest," she sat on a rock. "I can see why this spot was strategic for raising a dragon who couldn't fly. There's water, fish, and…"

She let out a big sigh.

"Must've been amazing to ride on dragons, Hiccup?" She looked at me with a smile.

I sat with her. "I guess. But it came with its own hazards. Falling into the earth is still a thing, ya know."

She laughed. "Sure. But just how amazing would it be? You get to fly every day, awh, the freedom! Imagine that!"

"Mhm. Well, if the Therondians already have their hands on the dragon, I have a feeling that you will be flying on one soon," I patted my knee.

Her face immediately brightened. "You think so?"

"I think so, but I do not hope so, obviously."

Her smile dropped. "Why?"

"Well, we would be hoping that the Therondians have not found the dragons yet," I shrugged.

She looked away, nodding down in acknowledgement. "True… I forgot about that."

I merely scoffed at her attitude. With that, I rested my cheek on my hand while looking blankly at the pond ahead of us. The waterfall emitted a relaxing sound in the background, and the pond was not a bad view. It only took a minute or two until I was gone into another realm. I began thinking of the journey ahead, but felt irritated of the limited imagination there was since I knew nothing until we reach the island. It slightly irritated me that I could not plan what happens after reaching the island.

Fifteen Berkians, consisting of my mom, Astrid, Eret, Tuffnut, Fishleg, and other ten Berkians whom I couldn't remember their names. And another four, which were me, Anna, Elsa, and Nokk the water spirit. What a team. I really hope that we could bring the tide into our favor with this small number.

Perhaps, I could do something more than placing a hope. What could I do to ensure victory?

Weaponry? It's in our pockets. We're Vikings.

Supplies? Elsa and the others were taking care of that.

Fighting skills? Everybody in the team was a fighter—oh wait…

Anna.

I turned to see her laying her cheek on my shoulder with her eyes closed, to which I never noticed. I gently cupped her cheek to gain her attention.

"Anna?"

No response. I gave the queen a gentle pinch and it did the trick. She rose from her sleep right away.

"Nuh—huh?"

"How's your skill in close combat?" I asked, standing up.

"My what?" She scrunched her eyes with her hands.

"Dear Thor, you fell asleep?" I chuckled.

"I…" she grinned, "Might have."

"Uh huh. I was saying, how is your skill in close combat?" I grabbed a random stick to imitate sword. I motioned the stick around to taunt her.

"Oh. Well, hmm," Anna pulled out the inferno blade from her bag. "Pretty good?" She pressed a button and gas emitted out of the other end of the handle of the blade. Having basically zero experience with the item, Anna grew panic.

"NO! Not that one! Press that again!" I told her.

She did as told, and the gas stopped flowing out. "That was close… is it this one?" She pressed another button and the blade came out of the handle.

"Right. No need to light it up. I want you to parry me," I grabbed my stick with two hands, moving in circle and occasionally taunting her with a fake swing.

"You want me to parry you?" She moved along in a circle, smirking dirtily.

"I want you to try. Hyah!" I swung my stick to her, and she blocked it. I took a step back, and immediately gave Anna another swing from the side. This was blocked as well, but it was blocked right on the very last second. Had she done it later, I would've hit her.

"Hup!" I swung again from the right, but this time, my stick went through her blade. Seeing so, I pulled my weapon to pull the blade away from her. Right away, Anna lost grip of her weapon.

"That was supposed to be your cue!" I chuckled, taking the blade off of my stick.

"That was supposed to be my cue, indeed," she scratched her hair and put herself into ready stance once again. Without a warning, I swung my stick from above, which she blocked nicely. While still contacting, she pushed her blade to attempt to push me away as well. However, she was not exactly strong with the push, so I could counter her quickly with a stronger push, which sent her a few steps backward.

Not taking a moment to break, Anna charged with the tip of the blade towards me. I jumped to the side to avoid it and grabbed her blade simultaneously, once again, snatching her weapon.

This time, she seemed slightly annoyed. I returned the weapon to her again.

"Hyahh!"

She swung and swung her blade to me, varying from the angles. I blocked every one of them. Seeing that I blocked every of her attacks, Anna built up some muscles to swing her blade from above heavily. I blocked it, and this time, she really was pushing. Our eyes connected, and I could see irritation building up inside hers. I decided to weaponize that.

I gave her foot a low sweep. She quickly lost her balance and dropped to the ground. I pressed the back of her neck with my weapon to warn her not to move.

After doing so, I took a few steps back. "Up."

Anna stood up on her feet, gripping the handle of the blade even tighter. The queen looked even more furious than ever. She charged towards me with a loud battle cry and swung her blade from above with great momentum. Her move was predictable, so I blocked her swing again while jumping backward. This time, my stick broke in half.

"Ha! Got ya!"

I looked to the pieces of the stick in awe. Without any warning, Anna charged again toward me. Seeing so, I quickly snapped the stick fully and wielded two short sticks with my two hands. I blocked the incoming swing with my sticks and used them to grab the blade, throwing it away afterwards. To end it, I pointed one stick to her neck.

"Anna… listen close," I pulled my stick away. "Don't let your rage consume you. It's not good."

The queen clicked her tongue. "I was nowhere near consumed by my emotion, Hiccup," she rejected, retrieving her blade back.

"You were! You can't be the judge of that, only your enemy can! And once they realize, it will be easy to turn it as their advantage," I advised.

"I was not carried by emotion, Hiccup," Anna still denied.

"Anna, please," I dropped my sticks, letting out one big sigh. "Listen to me. I only want you to survive, I only want you to be able to defend yourself when no one else can," I explained. I took her hands really make her listen to me closely. By the looks on her eyes, she was still denying my statement.

"… Last time I saw someone consumed with rage, I saw hundreds of them dying. Yes, some may be able to utilize it to battle better, but you clearly cannot, I'm afraid. So please," I squeezed her hands. Finally, I saw some acknowledgement in her eyes.

"The power of this weapon," I gestured to the inferno blade, " _Any_ weapon, comes from here," I placed two fingers on her chest where her heart resided. "But only when tempered by this," I placed a finger on her right temple, "By the discipline, the self-control, of the one who wields it."

I gripped her arms gently, but reassuringly. "That is where the true strength of a warrior lies. You must never forget that."

I kept my gaze locked onto her eyes to convey just how serious I was until she slowly nodded.

"Good then," I planted a kiss on her cheek. "Come."

I took a few steps back and returned into ready stance with my two sticks. Right away, she didn't seem to agree with my weapon of choice. "You're going to use those again?"

"Why not?"

"Oh come on…" She readied herself.

"How about I give myself a turn?"

We turned to the source of the offer to see Elsa emerging from the entrance of the cove with Nokk. With her power, she summoned herself a sword made out of ice.

"Yeah, sure," I dropped my sticks away and sat on a rock. Two Arendellian royalty sisters in a swordfight. This ought to be entertaining.

**I put a little Easter egg from my favorite video game,** **_God of War_ ** **. If you can spot it, congratulations!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Yes, the reference to God of War is the emotion pep talk :) specifically when Hiccup mentioned about the power of a weapon, until he gave his girl a kiss. His lines are the reference. Glad you're still reading :)**

**Anna's POV**

I. Have. Gone. Rusty.

I sat down on the ground, piercing the blade onto it as well by my side. My breathing was not managed, so I needed to catch them again. The temperature of the air was chilly, but I was sweating myself out. Even if it looked like a mere clash between two swords from the outside, the intense focus really worn us out.

Well, at least I was worn out. Elsa seemed to be doing fine with her stamina despite the long training we just had. It was mainly because of the fact that… I hate to admit it, but she was better than me. Hiccup and Elsa are better than me in sword combat. Sure, Elsa did use her power to make me slip on my own at first, which I quickly complained about since it was not fair. However, she really was good in wielding her sword. Not even once did I even come close in pinning her down.

I looked behind me to see my sister murmuring with Hiccup while sharing glances to me. Seeing that I have spotted their so-secret conversation, they stopped it in the middle of the track.

"You're good?" Hiccup asked.

"Huft… no?"

"Anna, you need to conserve your energy more," Elsa advised. "You need to… let the mind get involved as well. Not just the heart. That way, you'll do better in the combat."

I smirked, shaking my head in annoyance sarcastically. "Of course, you'd have the same advice with Hiccup. Well, to be fair, you cannot _not_ be angry to your enemy, right? I mean, you label them as your enemy because they did something that enraged you," I shrugged.

"Correct. But Elsa said 'let the mind get involved', not 'take over completely.' They… complete each other, they… work together. Put them in a nice harmony, and you'll pull better swings and parries and blocks!" Hiccup explained. "Theories aside… perhaps you should do less… battle cries, okay?"

"Battle cries?" I asked.

"The 'hyah', 'hup', and all," Elsa answered, snorting a little. "We don't want anyone to hear our voice when we're doing stealth mission, right?"

"Correct again! In a large battle, sure, shout all you want, as long as your attacks are equivalently as strong as the shouts," Hiccup smiled.

They were right. I did let out shouts when swinging my blade around a lot. Countless times.

"I'll… admit that. I do shout a lot," I scratched my hair.

"Well, we have a lot of training to do," Hiccup approached me. "Isn't there like… a class or something for something like this in the royalty?" He glanced to my sister and she nodded to confirm. Once he glanced to me, I could only smile sheepishly. The Viking proceeded to judge me.

"Huh… have you been skipping those classes?"

"I have… but only because I was not good at it," I grabbed the inferno blade, giving it an inspection. "It was never my thing. To take one's life."

"It was never mine either," Hiccup crouched in front of me. "But what if you have to defend yourself?"

I thought of an answer for a moment. "I'll run. In defense."

"What if you're cornered with nowhere to run?" He asked again.

"I'll hide," I smiled.

"What if there's nowhere to hide?" Elsa asked.

I remained silent.

I gave the two a big sigh to acknowledge just how much of a dangerous path ahead of us, and how necessary it was to face it seriously. I used the blade to help myself stand up and taunted Hiccup with it for a round.

" _En Garde_ , Sir Haddock," I spoke in a manly tone.

"Un what?" He asked, bringing his broken sticks up while walking in circle with me.

"Be ready."

We walked in circle, waiting for each other for a move. Hiccup took a step forward, but it turned out to be a mere faking move. Once again, he took several steps forward, but only to jump backward. Seeing the taunting, I carefully studied his move. His foot, eyes, his hands, heck, his old yet newly returned _prosthetic leg._

The Viking charged forward and swung his sticks from above. I placed my blade horizontally to block them. His momentum was so powerful, once we made contact, my own blade nearly hit my face.

He tried pushing more to break my block, but I resisted by giving his peg leg a sweep. He didn't lose his footing, but thanks to that, I managed to break free from the contact. Hiccup was not in a ready position, and I immediately took the chance by giving him a swing from the right.

His incredible reflex made me gasp as he jumped backward to avoid my blade!

Despite a little in shock, I continued my attack. I swung my blade from above, which, once again, Hiccup evaded by jumping away to the right. To continue the attack, I charged to him by pointing my blade right at him. My speed was bringing the tip of the blade so close to him, but out of nowhere, he merely ducked to avoid it.

But that left me with nowhere to go except himself. So, I ended up crashing on him.

My reckless charge made some dust fly around from the ground. Hence, it took me a moment to really realize that I was laying on the Viking's chest.

"Just as a reminder, you two are still enemies. Not lovers. Until one side is pinned down," Elsa sarcastically reminded.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I immediately got off of Hiccup and helped him up. I brushed off any dirt on my outfit and his.

"Well… were you seeing an improvement, Els?" Hiccup asked, turning to my sister.

"Hmm… she did break the sticks," she pointed to the sticks that were scattered by the crash. I never noticed, but apparently, they were now even more broken.

"Ah, never noticed that," Hiccup said. "Well, I saw a small improvement. You finally began studying my movement."

He read me! "I… was. But I'm still learning on how to do it more efficiently."

"You'll come around," he picked the even more broken sticks, gesturing to them. "You did make your enemy unarmed."

"Yay me!" I retracted the inferno blade. "What's my reward?"

"More training," He nudged my back with a smirk, throwing away the sticks. That reminded me.

"Hey, are you gonna get yourself any weapon soon, Hiccup?" I asked.

He half turned to me while walking to the pond. "Hm. I was thinking about a hatchet. Now that will be an interesting one, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"You will have to fight in a different style when the enemy wields something that is not a sword. We haven't even tested you with a shield as well!" He nudged me again. Irritation slightly grew inside me; despite he was true.

"Ughh… since when did I become a student of you two?" I crossed my arms.

"Maybe I can give a try in teaching you?"

It was a voice that belonged to neither of us. We turned to the entrance of the cove and found the blonde woman, Astrid, I believed. She walked seamlessly while carrying a large axe with one hand, which she planted on the ground after approaching us.

"Hiccup, your mother wants to see you in the dining hall," Astrid pointed a thumb to the back. Hearing this, Hiccup immediately put on a serious look.

"What's the matter?" He asked, walking to the entrance of the cove.

Astrid shrugged. "I dunno."

"Well," he turned to me and my sister, "I'll see you later."

With that, Hiccup ran off to the distance. The three of us watched him leave until he couldn't be seen anymore. At least, Elsa and I were.

"Practicing, your majesties?" She asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"Well, I am. My sister is already good on her own. Like she will use a sword, anyway," I scoffed. Elsa acknowledged it with a shrug while playing around with her ice sword.

"Queen Anna… and Queen Elsa, am I right?" Astrid asked. When she mentioned my sister's name, she gave the person a playful glance, which my sister returned with the same thing in the same manner.

"Mhm! Astrid, right?" I asked.

"But please, you can address us with our names only," I requested.

"Astrid it is. Very well. Heh, I remember finding your sister on that very spot where you're standing," Astrid recalled, which I clearly did not have a clue of what she was on about. I raised a brow at the statement, but Elsa laughed it off.

"You still remember?" Elsa asked.

"Who wouldn't? When else do you get a royalty with a very royal outfit in the middle of the woods near Raven Point?" Astrid intended full sarcasm in her tone.

Once again, Elsa laughed it off.

"Ohh… yeah, I imagine that'd be quite the embarrassing sight," I chuckled along.

"I know right? Anyway," Astrid grabbed her axe up. "A round, Your Majesty?"

The sight of a girl wielding an axe that big was quite menacing, but I was up for the challenge. I grabbed the blade and readied myself. "Yes please."

Astrid nodded, and we proceeded to walk in circle. From my perspective, I could only see one of her blue eyes, since the other one was blocked by the giant blade she possessed. Right away, I could tell that Astrid had the spirit of a warrior. It wasn't there, but I could sense a fire deep inside her eyes. It's what I felt absent with my training with Elsa and Hiccup; the sense of genuinely facing an enemy. Astrid, on the other hand, looked so fierce that I really felt threatened.

With a leap, Astrid swung her axe from the side to me. I avoided it by jumping backwards. The female Viking gave another swing, which I barely anticipated. I did the same maneuver to avoid it. The gap between my chest and the swinging axe was a mere tiny one due to my late anticipation. Giving no time to catch a breath (not that she needed one, anyway), Astrid swung the axe from above. It was too late for me avoid it, so I raised my blade horizontally and blocked it. My knees bent because of the force, but the axe was blocked. Upon contacting, I slid the axe to the left, which left me a window to finally initiate an attack. I swung my blade from the side, and Astrid's maneuver was something I've never seen.

She bent her spine backward, her face being so close away from my swing. Having evaded it like a pro, for a split second, she used this window to swing the handle of her axe to my face. There was not a second for me to react, so I simply closed my eyes to prepare of what's next.

_Swoosh_

I opened my eyes to see an Astrid with no axe. She looked as confused as I was. Later, we discovered her axe on my right with a mark of an ice blast on the blade. I turned to see Elsa, and my guess was right. My sister used her power to knock the axe off.

It took her a moment to realize of what she'd done after we gave her a gesture that screamed 'what was that for?'. "… I'm sorry. Force of habit." She placed her hands behind her back. "Please, do continue."

"I was going to stop right before hitting her face, Elsa," Astrid commented. She picked up her weapon once again and set herself in a ready stance.

"Before we continue," Astrid halted. She walked to me and pressed a button on the inferno blade that ignited the fire of the blade. It shocked me for a second.

"You gotta get used to the heat, Anna," she smirked. I believe she meant it literally and metaphorically; the blade was blazing hot!

We walked in circle again. This time, I decided to do the first move. I charged with the tip of my blade pointing at the Viking. She jumped away from the blade seamlessly. I tried to give her no breathing room by giving another swing. Once again, her seamless jump made my swing have no contact with her. Still with the same mindset, I swung my blade at her.

Within a blink of an eye, Astrid swung her axe to the direction of my blade and the next thing I knew was that I was unarmed from my weapon. I turned to my left to see my blade landing near the pond, still consumed with fire.

"Good lord…" I breathed a gasp.

"Come on Anna!" Elsa cheered for me.

Astrid didn't just parry me, she also made me an easy target. I slowly walked my way to the blade.

"I think we've had enough for today," Astrid suggested.

"Heh, I was about to suggest the same thing," I grabbed the handle and retracted it with a press of a button, hot smoke emitting from the hole where the blade resided.

Astrid looked at my blade while grabbing her chin. "Wait, before we end it there, let me teach you a cool technique that you can use with the blade."

* * *

"Really? Human trafficking?"

"Uh huh. This is why they're no joke, Astrid," I said as help my sister climb a tall ledge. "I should've done more digging into their background, honestly. Now I would like to end our diplomatic relationship with a huge bang."

"Well let's make sure we make it out of this alive and not missing a limb or two, Anna," my sister advised. When she looked up ahead, she was in awe. I turned to see what really made her feel amaze, and I was caught right away by the same thing. A view of the isle of Berk.

Astrid said there was a hill with a great view near Raven Point. It was a no brainer for me and Elsa since we were in the mood for exploring more. The rough walk took us hours to finish, but we had a lot of time to really bond with the female Viking. Though, to be fair, most of the conversation was quite grim, because we happened to talk about how she and other Vikings escaped New Berk. It was quite the bloody story that Elsa and I actually attempted to shift away from. We didn't want Astrid to tire herself mentally with her dark experience with Therondia's mercilessness. However, she kept on with her stories along with the details, which were mostly bloodbath. Not having experienced as many bloodbaths as Astrid had in our lives, Elsa and I couldn't help but to cringe every time she mentioned how the necks were slit, the mouths gagged blood, the scream piercing their ears, the swords piercing through the hearts, and more.

"Well, they are a bunch of assholes, then," Astrid commented, looking at the view ahead of us. "Anyway, great view, right?"

"Beautiful view." I commented, sitting down on the grass with Elsa.

"Worth the walk?" Astrid asked, joining us.

"It was definitely worth it," Elsa assured.

We remained silent to really take the view in. It was nearing evening. The air relatively warm to be fair, despite being all the way in the north, more north than Arendelle. Everything about the view was beautiful, the towering cliff to the left, the sea, the sun, the minimalist clouds, all except for… Berk itself. Grimmel's wrongdoing brought some infrastructures of the village down to the ground, and there was no fixing. It was beyond repair.

"Hey Anna, um…" Astrid called. "Are you two… together?"

Who was she referring to? "What, me and my sister?"

"No! I mean, you and um… Hiccup."

I swear, everyone was able to read me like a book. "Oh, uhm, yeah. We are."

She raised her brows 'nonchalantly' and looked to the ground. "Okay."

Elsa shared a glance with me, conveying her uneasiness with the question. The worst possibility that came to mind was the probability of the two of them being together before Therondia attacked. But it was not the most comfortable topic in the world, so, I wouldn't dig to find out.

Astrid looked up to the view again. "It would've only taken us minutes to get us up to this very hill," she turned to us, "On a dragon."

"I suppose so," I replied.

"Do you think the Therun… whatever they're called, have got their hands on the dragons?" She asked.

"Hmm… I want to be optimistic and positive, so I think they haven't. I mean, you and Hiccup have been to the Hidden World, right?" I asked.

"I have."

"The entrance is not so friendly for ships, is it?" I reminded.

Astrid nodded. "It isn't. But who knows what they have under their sleeves. They are full of tricks."

"Mhm. That's one hazard that we must be aware of," I nodded in agreement.

Astrid once again ignored the view ahead of us to watch the ground beneath her. Elsa and I noticed the lack of optimism of the Viking. I was about to convince her when Elsa placed a hand gently on her shoulder pad.

"We will be just fine, Astrid," Elsa assured.

The Viking smiled, appreciating the effort. "Thank you, Elsa."

"Anytime, Astrid," she replied.

"Say, can you show me your power again?" Astrid faced my sister in a great curiosity. Elsa chuckled in response. To fulfill the request, she danced her hands in a circular motion and created a snowball out of a flurry of ice, handing it to her afterwards. Astrid 'wow'ed at the snowball.

"Can you make something else?" Astrid asked excitingly.

"Um, name me something?" Elsa asked.

"Hm. A dagger."

"One dagger coming right up."

Elsa palmed her fists and placed them together. She parted them slowly, and inside grasp, a dagger made out of ice was materializing. She handed the item to the Viking again.

"Wow! You even created the details!" Astrid complimented while examining the object. I scooched closer to look what she meant, and she was true. There were patterns on the blade and the handle bar of the dagger.

"I tried making it look as Viking-ish as possible, he he," Elsa confessed.

"That is so cool… Anna, do you have any power?" Astrid asked.

"I wish. No, I don't have any power."

"Then… Why does Elsa have ice power?"

I was about to ready myself for a long explanation, but then we heard a cry of a Terrible Terror. When we looked for the source of the cry, a flock of Terrible Terrors landed between us. Blue was one of them. He bit my cape gently and pulled it.

"I think they want to take us somewhere?" Elsa asked, as one Terrible Terror was also attempting to pull her by the arm.

"Yeah, they are. Must be Hiccup's mother. I think she's calling for us now," Astrid said. "Well, it's another long walk down the hill again. Wish Terrible Terrors were big enough to carry us, though. The story can wait."

"Alright, let's go," I said.

"I have an idea," Elsa proposed.

We stood up. Astrid and I watched Elsa walk to the ledge we just scaled moments ago. On there, she stomped her foot to the ground. Soon, a big slide made out of ice materialized out of thin air. It kept forming and forming, following the route which we took in order to climb the hill.

"Whoa… how did you do that?" Astrid asked, watching the ice slide forming until it was gone into the woods.

"Mm, will magic do?" Elsa asked sheepishly. "I made the slide go all the way to the village. We should be there in minutes."

"Okay! Race you two there!"

With zero hesitance, Astrid jumped onto the slide and slid along it while screaming her lungs out.

"She just jumped right onto it…" Elsa said. "Well, you're competitive, aren't you?"

With that slight mockery, Elsa jumped onto the slide and went off into the distance. The last time I had a go on one of Elsa's ice, I was with Olaf and I hit myself with a branch of tree. Put it simply, it was against my wishes. Having experienced that, of course, I hesitated with the idea. But I never got the chance to come up with another idea. As if I would have anything better, anyway.

Slowly but surely, I stepped on the ice and knelt down to position myself. Before I could push myself away, I sensed something pushing me from behind out of the blue. Coincidentally, it was Blue himself!

"BLUE! WHOAAA—"

I tried to control my slide, but I had nothing to grab on. Everything was going so fast, several blinks I made resulted me in a place where I didn't know I was in. At one moment, I was still on the hills. At another moment, I was already in the woods. At another _another_ moment, I saw the cove to my right. Finally, after what I swore was the longest three minutes in my life, the sight of Viking civilization was in sight. But what caught my attention the most was this pile of snow by the end of the slide.

"Oh no…"

I closed my eyes and let myself crash into the snow. After feeling myself finally stationery, I opened my eyes and was immediately greeted by two familiar figures.

"How was it?" My sister asked, lending a hand for me to get up.

I accepted her hand. "Ugh… no comment," I replied.

"Whoops."

"They must be in the dining hall. Come on girls," Astrid said, gesturing us to follow her. So, we did.

The walk to the hall didn't take long. Once we were by the entrance, I could hear chanting and laughter. Inside, there was one large long table. On top of them, many kinds of food were prepared. Apparently, everyone had gathered and started on their own with the food, including Hiccup.

One person who noticed our presences was Valka, who was sitting beside her son. Right away, she waved at us, gesturing the empty seats in front and next to her. We did as her wish. Astrid sat next to her, while Elsa and I sat across her.

"Please! If there's a reason why Mrs. Hoffman survived the raid, it's to celebrate Hiccup's return with a great dinner!" Valka said, showing the food in front of us which varied from size, shape, and color.

"Who's Mrs. Hoffman?" I asked, while looking at the food to determine which one to have.

"Oh. The woman who has prepared all of this! She is a great cook," she explained. Suddenly, Valka stood up with her cup.

"Everyone! Listen up!"

With that exclaim, everyone stopped their chattering and paid attention to her. "Tonight, we are celebrating the return of my son, and our chief, Hiccup!"

"YEAH!" Everyone cheered. Hiccup could only smile sheepishly at his mother.

"This is to our chief!" She raised her drink, and so did everyone. "And to our partners, who have found himself, Queen Anna and her sister, Elsa! CHEERS!"

"CHEERS!"

With that, everyone chugged their drinks and proceeded to continue with their previous conversations, only after slamming their drinks against the table.

"Thank you, Hiccup's mother," I expressed once she has sat down again.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's the least I can do for now," she waved it off. "And please, Valka would be fine. Please, drink your drinks! It's our finest wine, nobody has touched it ever since we left!"

"Oh. So, it's been years…" I said as I examined my drink.

"Mm... I love it," Elsa commented. I turned to her and her lips were already covered in stains of the wine. Afterwards, she took more gulps of the drink.

"I believe the taste of a wine will only become finer as we leave its fermentation going," Valka reminded. It's true, but it's something that could never really convince me. However, since this was their delicacy, I wanted to try it.

I gave the wine a sip. Right away, I scrunched my face due to its strong taste. After swallowing the sip, my stomach felt warm.

"Oh god… I think I'll gobble the food first," I placed the cup to put some pork on my fork. Elsa went with the same option.

Everybody was enjoying their conversation during the feast, including Hiccup. I would've liked to talk to him, but he was sat too far from me and was talking to his other companions. In the end, the four of us, Valka, Astrid, Elsa, and I talked about Arendelle and its recent history. Not that I was complaining, but, you know, you don't want to be left out by your partner in an event like this. But in the same time, you want your partner to really enjoy their time fully.

The conversation lasted for as long as Mrs. Hoffman kept refilling our empty cups with more wine. When a cup was finished, a topic was finished as well. Not that mine got empty anyway. After finishing mine halfway, Elsa was already on her third refill. I never knew that she was this strong with alcohol, especially since we're talking about cups that were twice as big as the ones I had in home, so the portions were large. I believe Hiccup was quite the strong drinker as well, he asked for refills numerous times, but he kept a straight face all the time.

Though the cycle was continuing, after a good hour or two, I was worn out by this amount of social interactions. I wanted to call it a day, but I didn't feel okay with just standing up and leaving. However, Elsa was there to save the day.

"Valka, Astrid, Anna and I will have to check on Nokk. I'll see you tomorrow?" Elsa excused.

"Oh yeah, sure. Good night you two," Valka said, finishing her wine.

"Good night Anna, Elsa," Astrid bid.

With that, we walked out of the dining hall. We exited the hall and were greeted by the full moon above us. The food, the drink, and the conversations really made time fly away. And for the others, it was still going on. Their laughter echoed in the hall, and was very much heard from outside.

We walked along the path, only to stop when Elsa was suddenly about to collapse. I caught her within an instance.

"Hey! You okay?"

She stood back on her feet. "Yeah… I'm good."

Her tone sounded funny. "Are you drunk?"

"Mm… I think I'm about to be… please, take me home before I do something stupid…" my sister requested.

"You shouldn't have had so much, Els," I took her arm around me and helped her with her steps.

"Anna, did you even try it? It was soooo good!" She said in a slurry tone.

"Yeah yeah…"

Luckily, she remained silent throughout the walk. Once we reached our house, Elsa suddenly made herself heavier. Only after looking at her face did I realize that she had fallen asleep, _while walking_. Cursing under my breath, I carried her in bridal style to her bed.

"Mmm… you're the best sister ever…" Elsa spoke as I gently laid her down on a couch. It's as if she knew what I was doing, without having to see me.

"I know."

I covered her with a blanket we brought from Arendelle. Since there was no lighting in the room, I ignited the fireplace in the middle of the room. Right away, it provided not just lighting, but warmth. The fire allowed me to see my sister sleeping soundlessly, _while smiling_. God knows what was in her mind.

_Thud_

I turned to the door to see a familiar slender figure.

"Hey honey…" Hiccup called. He hiccupped afterwards, which was a laughable sight.

"Haha, hey. You know your way home," I greeted back, approaching him.

"Well of course! I live here!" He replied in a slurry tone. Oh no, he's drunk too.

"Let's get you to the bed, shall we?" I took his arm around my neck to help him support his own weight while having only half of his brain active. With baby steps, we took the stairs to reach his room. He let out incoherent moaning while walking, sometimes murmurings as well.

Later, I prepped him on the bed. He sat down and looked blankly onto the floor.

"You're okay?" I asked, kneeling down to meet his face. His eyes remained staring blankly, even with mine being the center object of his sight.

"Will we be able to do this?..." He asked.

"Do what?"

"This whole thing. Saving the dragons. Getting rid of Therondia. What a stupid name," he looked away.

"We will be victorious," I gripped his arms firmly. "I will ensure that."

"I don't think it's possible with this amount of people we have…" He argued.

"At least we have a number. And we have the element of surprise."

"What if they are the one who will surprise us first?"

"What if they are not?"

Finally, he looked into my eyes. Even with the dim lighting, his eyes were still visible.

"Big goo-goo eyes…" Hiccup said, chuckling. "You have beautiful eyes, Anna."

The sudden change of topic was very sudden, indeed. I inevitably blushed. "Yours are beautiful as well, Hiccup."

"Well these eyes have seen too much blood, I'm surprised they haven't turned red yet," he replied.

The logic made me erupt a laugh. "Right…"

"Maybe I'll have them scooped out with a spoon or something…"

"Hiccup!" I shook his arms. That got his attention well, and he looked sorry in an instance.

"I'm sorry… you shouldn't listen to me while I'm drunk," Hiccup said.

His obviousness was both sarcastic and true in the same time, which was laughable as well. "Heh… I know. Go to sleep. Good night."

I let go of his arms, but only to have them catch mine again in midair. I looked to him in curiosity.

"Mm… sleep with me."

It shocked me to death to hear the request. It would be a lie to say that I didn't want to, but this was a drunk Hiccup. Was I willing to take the so-called risks?

Yes, I was. "Make space."

His face lit up. The Viking pulled me and kissed me by the hair, in which I responded with a mere chuckle. I laid down next to him, close enough to have his shoulder as a pillow. His hand was stroking my hair in a loving manner.

"Good night, Hiccup," I whispered.

"Nighty night, Anna. I love you."

That was it. The first magic triplet words. Spoken while he was drunk.

"I love you too."


	18. Chapter 18

**Hiccup's POV**

I felt my body sway about. Perhaps it was the wine. I had too much wine.

I peeled my eyes open slowly. The view that greeted me explained the swaying movement; I was on the ship, particularly inside the cabin. It appeared that we were already on our way while I was still unconscious.

When I tried to get up, a ridiculously painful pound hit my head. Inevitably, I grunted in pain to more of them after the first one. I began to breathe heavily due to the phenomenon. With every single bit of energy there was, I positioned myself to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"God…" I rubbed my head. Out of the blue, a hand landed on my shoulder. I looked up; it was Elsa.

"Morning…" she smiled, doing the same thing I was; rubbing her temple. She sat down next to me.

"Hey. Morning," I replied.

"Tough night?" Elsa chuckled.

"Yeah, that's one way to put it—oof!" A stinging sensation materialized inside my head, cutting me midsentence.

"You okay?"

"Y-Yeah… I'm good…" I applied more and more rubs against my temple to really blood flow into my poor brain. At least, that's what I believed what rubbing your temple will do when you have a headache. But it was working! The pain slowly eased itself, as if there was a monster inside that needed some calming down.

"Well, hello there, drunk buddy—oof," Elsa did the same thing I did to cope with the same stinging sensation. "Mmh… did Anna get drunk, too?"

"Don't think so. We're already sailing our way to New Berk. If it's not her that carried us all the way to the dock, I don't know who else," I said. "Besides, I don't think she really dug the taste of the wine."

"But it was so good!" Elsa added.

"I uhh… will have to admit, it really was. Hopefully we didn't bring any. Did we?" I asked, looking around for any sign of wine stored in a compartment or container.

"I hope for the opposite," Elsa smiled cheekily.

"Elsa the fifth spirit of Northuldra, that is so un-spirit-like of you!" I sarcastically replied.

She proceeded to laugh about it while rubbing her temples even more. Seeing her behaving as so, I nudged her playfully.

"Don't make me put a lemon on your smile to wipe it away," I said, standing up. "I need some fresh air. So do you. Come on."

Slowly but surely, we made our way out of the cabin. Right away, we were greeted by the view of the ocean and the harsh breeze of the wind. The sky was open; a perfect weather for the journey. Right next to our ship, a distinct Viking boat was sailing. I saw the familiar figure of Mrs. Hoffman taking control of the steering of the boat while being helped by some men. It would make sense that she was one of very few people who made it out of whatever happened last night while still sober.

On the starboard side of the ship, Anna was there, just standing while enjoying the view. When she looked to her back, she noticed our presences.

"Oh hey! Good afternoon! You two are finally awake!" She gestured us to come to her.

"Mhm. Good afternoon. Were you, um, sober in the whole time?" I asked, leaning myself against the railing of the boat.

"I was. And so was your mother," she pointed to the poop deck and there my mother was, holding the steering wheel. Mother merely gave a wave of a hand, as she seemed to be preoccupied with the wheel and the Terrible Terror on her shoulder.

"Wait, Anna, did you just say afternoon?" Elsa asked, scratching her hair.

"Uh huh. You two have slept for so long, mind you. How are you two feeling?" Anna asked.

"Well, sober, I think," Elsa replied.

"I'm on my way," I added, shrugging.

"Do you want some milk? I heard it helps to ease the head," Anna suggested, concern appearing in her expression.

"I think it can wait, you go ahead have some," I gave Elsa a pat by the shoulder and headed to the poop deck to see my mother. She noticed my presence and stopped giving her affection to the Terrible Terror.

"Hey there," she greeted with a smile.

"Hi."

"Sober?"

"I guess. Were you, um, by any chance, also—"

"Oh no. I was not. It takes more than that for me to get drunk. Luckily, I only got drunk once throughout my life, and I heard it was quite the hell. Stoick was there to calm me down, so, props to him," she scoffed.

"Really? You never told me that story," I told her, looking ahead to the horizon of sea.

"And I have a reason why I never did. Not all stories are meant to be shared, you know," she let go of the wheel and locked it with a pull of lever next to it.

"Uh huh," I scoffed.

She sat on the wooden railing in front of the wheel, facing me. "I can't believe how I found you last night when we were about to depart."

Within an instance, worry took over me. "Oh no. What happened?"

"Well, what did you remember from last night?" Mother chuckled.

"Hmm… the dinner? I had multiple refills, pretty sure I was in another realm after that," I crossed my arms, sitting on the railing next to her.

"Ahh… I think I have a change of mind. I won't tell you."

"Mom!" I gave her a push by the arm. She reacted by fixing her balance and laughing. "Tell me!"

"But I'm proud, though…"

"Proud of what?"

"You slept with Anna. But who knows? Maybe you two have been doing it for quite a while? So it's no big deal," she looked ahead with a smile.

I… slept with Anna? Oh no, did we?

"Did we… um…" I made motions with my hand as I tried my best in finding the words that still could describe what I wanted to convey but not as blatantly as possible. "Um… were we…"

"You two still had your clothes on, in case you were wondering. So, no. I don't think you two had a go," she explained. Right away, the heavy feeling inside my chest lifted off.

"Good…"

"Good? I kind of wish for the opposite, to be honest," mother scratched all over my hair in a playful manner.

"Mommm!" I pulled myself off of her grasp, giving her a 'what in the name of Odin' look. Despite being judged, she still smiled along. Perhaps she really meant it, she wanted her son to tie the knot with the Queen of Arendelle.

"He he… By the by, I've heard of the story. From the Vikings who have been there, and from herself," she replied.

"Anna told you about it?!" I asked in disbelief.

She raised her hands in denial. "Oh no, I'm talking about something else. The story of the… 'Great Thaw', I think that's the name for it. You must have been told I assume?"

Realizing that I had the wrong idea of the story she meant, I relaxed my face. It was how Anna saved her sister from a prince who wanted the throne of the kingdom. "Oh. Yeah, she has. What did she tell you?"

"Oh everything. Anna just told me this morning. How she traveled through the snow to get to her sister. How she loved her so much," she looked to her back to see the sisters bonding together. "She's a good sister. She also told me her recent adventure to the Enchanted Forest, how she, once again, saved her sister. And the kingdom, too, essentially."

"Wow, she must've told you a lot," I said.

"Mhm. The queen has a big heart. And it's you, the one who holds it dearly," she placed a hand gently on my chest, particularly the spot where my heart resided.

I bit my lip. "Hfft… did she tell you about that as well?"

"No need to keep it as a secret, Hiccup. Nobody will mind," she replied.

I stared at the floor for a moment, sighing up afterwards as a sign of defeat. "And she holds mine."

"I can see that," she tried to catch my vision with her own, smiling. I returned the smile with the same thing.

"She was pretty open about it as well, anyway," mother added.

"About how… she…" I dragged my sentence, again, not wanting to express it blatantly.

"Feels to you," she completed.

"Heh. Were you interrogating her or something?"

"Of course not. We just arrived at that topic while prepping everything for the journey. There were only the five of us, you know? To handle two boats in the same time?" She showed the number of fingers of her hand to emphasize just how little that number was. "There were only Anna, Mrs. Hoffman, Mr. Hoffman, Eret, and me! Well, if you count the water horse, there would be six of us. Very clever of him to move the water beneath us, I must say."

"Yeah, that was a part of our plan to speed our travel time up. Where are the others?" I asked.

"Still sleeping in the lower deck. Luckily, we already had our supplies stored before we had to 'store' you drunken men and women," mother intended full sarcasm in her reply.

I chuckled sheepishly. "Well, we probably shouldn't have partied so hard last night…"

Mother gave my shoulder a firm grip. "You arriving back to us was a miracle, Hiccup. Of course, it was worth celebrating."

I stared at her eyes before turning away with a sigh. "If you put it that way."

"After what you've been through, after what _Anna_ has been through…" She added, which made me raise a brow.

"What Anna has been through?" I questioned.

She turned to me, giving me a sharp look. "You attempted to commit suicide, did you not?"

Busted.

I looked to the floor, not giving her a reply while biting my bottom lip. She didn't say anything too for a moment.

"It's in the past," she said. She scooched closer to me and pulled me with an arm into a hug. "I love you, son."

I was expecting a scold or something close, but this was better overall. I did the same to her, and in the process, on the bottom of my vision, I saw Anna and Elsa watching us from portside. The two merely waved their hands with a smile. I slightly waved my hand in return.

"I love you too, mom."

We let go of each other. "Um, you have set the course?" I asked.

"I have. We just keep heading west, right?" She pulled a map from her pocket and undid it. Her finger pointed to the center of the map where Old Berk was. It traced all the way to west and stopped on a giant island, New Berk.

"Correct," I responded.

"Heh. Your mother is still sharp when it comes to sailing, son. Even after flying on the back of a Stormcutter for more than twenty years," she scoffed. "Another reason why your father fell for me."

"Yeah yeah…"

She looked to her back to spot Elsa being alone by herself, with what seemed to be a glass of milk in her hand. "Why don't you accompany her?" Mother nudged me.

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna need my milk for now," I responded. I nudged her back before I made my way to Elsa, who was casually sipping her drink while enjoying the view. Before I could even call her, Nokk breached the surface of the water, galloping alongside the boat. Elsa gave her pats by the neck.

"Hey there buddy…" she softly spoke. The horse neighed in response. He turned to me, realizing my presence while still galloping. Elsa realized the same thing right away.

"Hey, does the milk work?" I asked, pointing at her glass.

She nodded vigorously. "Yeah! It does! I'm already much better now," she said as she sipped more of her milk.

"Alright, I'll go get some."

I headed into the cabin and saw Anna pouring just what I wanted into a glass. Once I shut the door, that gained her attention. "Hey."

"Hey, is that for me?"

"Yes. I was just about to give it to you so you could enjoy your talk with your mother even more," she handed me the glass. I took a gulp and noticed its coldness.

"Mm! It's cold! How?"

"Elsa's magic? It does come in…" she motioned her hands as if she was sending blast of ice with them, "Handy, you know what I'm saying?"

I gave her a judging look while sipping my drink. "You did not."

"Oh yes, I did, kind sir," she smiled proudly.

"You very much did," I sat down on the bed to finish the drink. It didn't take long for me to really feel the effect kicking in. My head began to feel gradually lighter from its previously heavier feeling. My vision was clearing up. Overall, my body was regaining itself after the excess amount of wine I had just had in the night before.

Anna sat down with me. "You good?"

"More than good. How did you know milk was good in this?" I asked.

"Kai told me. Let's say, he used the same thing to me when I had, um," she scratched her head, "Too much wine at this party."

"Ahh, so you have experienced it."

"I have, yeah. But I would not like to share what happened. At least, not yet," she shrugged.

"I'll be looking forward to it, then," I responded.

We remained silent for a moment. At one point, Anna rested her chin on my shoulder, her right arm entangled with my left one. She let out one big sigh. Judging from the frown, I suspected that she had something in her mind.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing. It's just… Valka. She is a really good woman, I can tell," she responded.

"Okay. And?" I sipped my milk.

"After talking to her for… well, she has been the only one around to talk to since dawn, it kinda made me, um, miss my own mother. And father, too, I suppose."

I finished my milk and put it away. I cupped her cheek, pulling her closer. "Is that so?"

"Yeah…" She said under her breath. "I can see mother in her."

I remained silent. My hand shoved her arm to sooth her.

"Well, aside the melancholy bits, I'm glad that I've met her," She pulled away from me, connecting our eyes together while smiling endearingly.

"I'm glad that she made it out. I mean, out of many Berkians… she was the one out of a few…" I chuckled.

"I know right?"

"You two should get to know her more. But don't ask her for cooking tips, she won't have a clue," I joked. The queen laughed about it.

"Right… So, with this speed, how long until we reach New Berk?" She asked.

"Hmm… three days? Or even two?" I explained. I stood up to reach a compartment just below my bed. From there, I grabbed my scroll of map and opened it.

"We are here," I pointed a spot with a finger near Old Berk. "Once the island is within an eyesight," I tapped a finger on New Berk on the map, "We must wait until night or set a speed that will make us arrive there by night. Then we circle the island from a distance, reach the north side, enter the giant waterfall, and set a base there."

"What makes you so sure that the cave behind the waterfall is safe for all of us?" Anna asked.

I chuckled, because I was about to tell her a fact that would blow her mind. "You see, New Berk is… a giant island that stood tall. To reach the top, we will need to ride a dragon, or, apparently, the Therondian way, shoot a harpoon to the top that acts as a ladder to get themselves up. Now, _inside_ this island,"

 _"_ _Inside?"_ Anna asked.

"Yeah, inside, there is a labyrinth. The island is basically one gigantic labyrinth! It took us _months_ to really map the labyrinth thoroughly. Since Therondia killed every Berkian there was, I doubt that they have the slightest knowledge about this tailless maze," I explained.

It took her a moment to really picture what I really meant. "Like… there's a giant maze underground?"

"Yeah! And we know the path that connects us from the waterfall cave to the top," I smiled proudly. "We will use this as our own advantage."

She smiled, almost like in relief. "Well, I don't think there's any better news to hear for this occasion."

"Hmm, the news of you honing your skills in swordsmanship would be nice to hear, too," I mockingly suggested. Right away, she showed an expression of a challenged person. She stood up and went to her compartment. Her hand dug into it and pulled out her inferno blade, taunting me with it afterwards.

"Did I tell you that your mother also trained me?" She smirked. "Rise, Sir Haddock," she challenged.

"What, in here? In the cabin?" I asked.

"There's enough room," she replied, taunting more with the blade. Acknowledging it, I dug my hands into my compartment and pulled out my two hatchets that I had acquired from the weaponry back in Old Berk. I set myself in a ready stance, eyes locked onto the challenger in the room.

We moved in circle, waiting for each other a move. Almost simultaneously, we jumped into each other.

* * *

_CLANG_

"Go Anna! Yeah!" Astrid cheered.

"Boo Hiccy! You're totally going down!" Ruffnut 'supported'.

"Let's go Anna!" Elsa shouted.

Here we are, two days later in the journey to New Berk. Anna and I were in a duel. She was on a streak of duels with many people including her sister, my mother, Ruffnut, Eret, and Astrid. Of course, she didn't win all of them, but defeating Astrid who wielded a giant axe and Ruffnut who wielded a mace certainly boosted the queen's confidence.

It was dark, so we had to set a torch by the mast to gain some lighting on the boat. Everyone was circling us while either sitting down or standing up, watching us with full hopes. Well, I believed some were. Even the ones on the other ship was sailing with us so closely to spectate the duel.

Anna was now using a shield she brought from her land. She covered half of her face with the shield, so I could only spot her eyes. Her eyes had never looked so fierce than before. The queen had really brought back her warrior spirit, as if it was asleep in the whole time. We were only entering the first five minutes of the match, and she already had pinned me four times, and I only had done twice. I was lacking two scores in this best of five match.

Was I willing to lose for my own girlfriend?

Absolutely not.

Anna began to taunt me again by banging her blade against her own shield. This and her eyes were playing a psychological game, trying to affect me in any way possible.

After my previous failed attempt in pinning her down, we began to move in circle again with the mast between us. With her not making a single move, I leaped forward my hatchets. I swung my left hatchet to her from the side, which she blocked with her shield. My momentum made her recoil a little, giving me an opening to her exposed back. When I swung my right hatchet to her back, Anna swung her shield to the direction of it. I never saw it coming. After a loud _CLANG,_ I was sent backwards a few steps. I nearly lost grip of my weapons.

"OOOH!"

"Whoa!"

The parry was indeed worth the 'ooh' and 'ahh'. I looked up to regain my composure, but only to have her charging at me with her blade. She swung the blade from above, so I jumped backward to avoid it. By the time I landed, she gave me no time to take a breather by charging to me with her shield. This was, unfortunately, unavoidable. Her hit once again sent me backward, making my back contact with the railing of the boat hard.

"Agh!"

The theme of the fight was no time to breathe. So, inevitably, Anna lunged to me again, this time she used the pointy bit of her blade, trying to impale me. I noticed this at the very last second, so I rolled away to avoid it, which I did, barely.

Having successfully yet barely avoided the charge, I turned around to see my opponent. Her current state was quite the shocking one; she had her blade stuck against the railing of the boat! While still struggling to pull her weapon out, I took my chance and pulled her by strangling her with an arm, the other placing the edge of my hatchet on her neck.

Seeing that she was cornered in the current situation, Anna dropped her shield in surrender. I let go of her after that.

"Point for Hiccup! Three to four!" Eret exclaimed.

"That was a lucky point, no need for a point for me for that," I said.

"No!" She pulled her blade with both arms out. Later, she picked up her shield again and readied herself. "Lucky or not, I slipped on my own back there. Of course you get a point for that," she bashed her blade against the sword. "Come on!"

"YOU GO GIRL!" Astrid exclaimed.

"YEAH ANNA!" Elsa cheered.

I could tell that she just won the hearts of the audience with that simple gesture. Seeing that the audience was on her side really made me more determined in not losing. This was now about pride, not just a normal best of five match.

"Very well," I spoke.

For the countless time, we moved in circle again, eyes connected onto one another. This time, I waited for her to move. With a loud stomp, Anna charged towards me, swinging her blade from the side. I ducked, evading it. Since Anna still had some momentum because of her charge, I used the window to land a swing to her from below. But it merely contacted her shield with a loud _BANG_. She tried her best not to recoil from the force. She returned the attack by giving my peg leg a sweep. I lost my footing, landing my butt on the deck. I was in a vulnerable position, so I quickly rolled away to avoid the incoming swing of her blade.

After creating a safe gap, I stood back on my feet. Anna swung her blade to me again from above, but only to have it land on the floor instead. Almost like a miracle for me, the tip of the blade apparently got stuck again. When she was trying to pull it out, I used my prosthetic to keep the blade planted on the floor. Anna looked up to me, her teeth gritting. She attempted to bash me with the shield, but I countered by swinging both of my hatchets to its direction. Since my force was far bigger, she lost grip of her shield, dropping it onto the ground. I placed the blade of my hatchet against her neck once again.

"Do you want a point for that, Hiccup?" Eret asked.

"Of course, I want it!" I replied, creating a gap between me and my opponent.

"All right! Four to four! Decisive round, begin!" Eret announced. Everyone clapped their hands in excitement, shouting more 'wohooo' and 'come on!'

Anna pulled out the inferno blade again from the floor and put on her shield. Hopefully for the last time, we moved in circle again, still circling the same mast.

This time, I made the first move. Seeing a straight clear path that would lead me to my opponent, I leaped forward, swinging my hatchets from the right side. Both impacted against the shield hard. From the opposite side, I hit her shield with my weapons, only to have them loudly contacted against each other. I was trying to break her for the sake of an opening with an aggressive style, and it worked! On my third swing, Anna was sent spinning around, leaving her back exposed once again. As I was about to land my hatchet on it, she quickly turned around and parried my swing with her blade. The counter stunned me, making me vulnerable to her attack. She took the window by bashing her shield against me. The hard contact sent me a few steps backward.

Her shield hit me by the face, particularly my jaw, so I had to fix it for a moment. Suddenly, Anna had a change of expression into a worried one.

"Your lips! …"

"What's that—" I cut myself after I tasted blood in my mouth.

"Oh. It's all right! Do not feel for your opponent!" I told her. "I'm still your opponent! Remember that!"

Anna still looked unsure, though she was in a ready stance.

"Come on!" I clanged my hatchets together. "Scared much?" I taunted, trying to reawaken her warrior spirit. It did a little, signed by her frown, but it was enough. She lunged towards me, her blade swinging from the side. I aimed my hatchets for the blade, but I hardly anticipated her shield. I managed to blocked her swing, but she still managed to give me a good push with the shield.

Again, I was sent backward. Before I could even regain myself, Anna swung her blade to me and hit me by the hands. The heat from the flaming blade made me lose grip of my weapons.

"Ahh!" I hissed in pain.

"Oh no!" Anna said.

"Point for Anna! Anna wins!" Eret exclaimed. Followed after that were cheering and yelling for Anna. However, Anna was not so 'cheered' by them. Instead, she took my hands and examined the burn mark she had made after turning off the fire from the blade and dropping her weapons.

"Fuck… I-I'm sorry… I shouldn't have had the fire on for this occasion…" She said. "Let's get this patched up—"

_"Guys! Land Ho!"_

Everyone turned to the source of the exclamation, which happened to be Fishleg's, who was looking up ahead from his scope. Right away, the cheering for Anna's victory stopped. Everyone including me ran to the bow. Fishleg gave me his scope to take a closer look, and he was right. There was a land. It was New Berk. Its gigantic towering shape was so distinctive from other lands we've ever seen. This was it; my home was just up ahead. My rightful home.

"Thor bless my calculation. Land ho, indeed! Steer right hard, proceed to steer left gradually after that! We need to get to the north side of the island!" I announced. With that, everyone cleared off to make the boat steer right. I was about to undo some knots but Anna stopped me midtrack.

"Let's get you patched up first, Hiccup!" She said.

I chuckled. "It's just a burn mark, chill! The blade is not sharp, after all, remember?"

"How am I supposed to chill? Come on, Hiccup. You can't do things with an infecting burn mark on your hands, please."

Seeing the sternness, I sighed in defeat. She took me into the cabin and prepped the medicines needed for the treatment. I grudgingly took a look of my hands again and was taken aback to see blood flowing from a cut that I never knew was there. There was no hiding for it, so Anna noticed the cut right away when she returned with the patches.

"Oh no… I must've hit your hands with tip of the blade…"

She made me sit down on the bed while cleaning my hands with a piece of wet cloth. After cleaning off the blood, the applied a patch on each hand. She did quite the tidy work, I must say.

"There…" Anna spoke, merely staring at my hands for a few moments.

"I'm sorry…" She spoke softly.

"It's okay. I would've tried to find more openings, anyway. I was still your opponent, you know?" I assured. She remained staring at my hands, occasionally caressing them gently.

"I know… it's just, now your entire arms are… scarred."

She ran her fingers from my wrists to my hands to gesture at the scars she meant. I captured her hands, entrapping them in mine. "It's okay baby girl."

The Queen of Arendelle looked up to me, still with a sorry look. I leaned in and kissed her by the lips once, and by the forehead once, too. I pulled her into a hug afterwards.

"Just don't feel for your enemy next time. They will only have one ambition, either it's to kill you or to take you away so they can kill you later," I whispered on her ear.

"Yeah… noted," she whispered back.

I let go of her. "Come on, New Berk awaits."

She gave me a smile, which I was relieved to see. I took her hand and walked out of the cabin. On the far-left side, a shady but definite shadow of New Berk was there. Fishleg was examining the island constantly on portside from his scope.

"How are we looking, Fishleg?" I asked.

"I think we're already on the north side, what do you think Hiccup?" He gave me his binocular again. I examined the island through it, and I saw what was definitely the waterfall.

"Alright…" I looked up to the poop deck and Eret was there, manning the wheel. "Eret! Steer left. Go dead straight for the waterfall!"

"Aye chief!"

"Hiccup," Elsa called. "Do you need more speed? I can tell Nokk to make the approach faster."

"Sure thing. Everybody! Loosen all sails then, we don't need 'em. We will be running solemnly on Nokk," I replied. Elsa nodded to the command and went to starboard to do it. Everybody else headed to remove the sails, and so did the crew onboard the ship next to ours.

After commanding Nokk to pick up the speed, we immediately felt the change. We were heading to the waterfall fast. The island was a mere speck, but with our current speed, it was becoming larger as moments passed. Everybody kept their eyes on the very edge of the cliffs of the island, hoping for no one to spot us. The night was rather cloudy, so we had a tiny bit advantage to cover our approach by the weather.

It took us no more than five minutes to reach the island. So far, we saw nobody up on the cliffs, which was good news for us. By the time we were closing to the waterfall, Nokk slowed our speed down. I looked to Elsa and signaled her with a nod. Nodding back, she used her magic to create a gate of ice that cut an opening on the waterfall, allowing us to move past it safely.

Once inside the cave, it was pitch black. Some lit torches to gain some lighting inside the cave, but that still didn't do much as we still couldn't see much.

Out of nowhere, our ships beached themselves. Nokk resurfaced on the water, sharing a look with me. I nodded to the water horse and jumped off the ship. Everybody followed me carefully. I took my time to really map the entirety of the cave's interior. I was looking for a passage, an opening, that would lead me to the labyrinth of the island. It took some time, but after looking carefully and thoroughly, I found it.

"There it is…" I gestured to the opening that I was looking for to everyone behind me. There were 'stairs' we had carved a long time ago that had been covered in mosses. They would lead all of us to the top.

"You still remember the way, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.

"Uh huh. It's all in here," I pointed at my head. "Worry not."

"All right, let's make ourselves a nice base, people. We will wait until morning—"

_Thud_

I looked behind and saw men from the past. Therondians.

"VIKINGS!"

One man lunged toward me, swinging his sword from above. I evaded it just in time. "GRAB YOUR WEAPONS!" I exclaimed.

All of us ran away from the pack of Therondian soldiers. On our way, I looked behind to count their number. I saw at least a good eight.

_Phew!_

Something flew past my head, which I swore cut some bits of my hair. I looked behind and saw a man reloading a crossbow.

I hid behind a rock, watching the others getting back onto the boats to retrieve their weapons. All except for Elsa. She stood her ground, facing the incoming soldiers.

"Elsa! What are you doing?!"

Not batting an eye to me, Elsa stomped the ground and created a wall of ice to separate us from them.

"What is this magic?! She's a witch!" One man spoke.

I came out of my hiding to see the magic Elsa pulled. "Nice one, Els."

"Thank you—" _BOOM!_

Not even a moment was given, the ice wall was already shattered by an explosion. Out of the smoke of debris, the Therondians came out, charging toward us. Fortunately, my people had already got their weapons. Ruffnut passed me my hatches as he and the others ran to the direction of our opponents with battle cries.

Swords began to clash, shields began to bash, axes began to swing. Astrid and I were fighting this one large man who wielded a mace. With his reckless swings, we hardly found an opening to counter the Therondian's attacks. At one point, he kicked Astrid hard, making her back hit a rock hard. Seeing so, I threw one hatchet at the man. With Godlike reflex, he blocked the incoming hatchet with his weapon. I was only left with one hatchet, and he saw it as an opportunity as he approached me with a devil-like smile.

I walked backward to get away from him, but I slipped on my track. He began to build momentum by swinging his mace around, but shortly after that, ice materialized just under the man's steps. He slipped. I looked behind and saw Elsa doing the same to other Therondians, creating slippery ice under them. Astrid, who was regaining her composure, saw the chance and planted her axe on the man's unprotected back with a strong swing. The cracking of the man's spine confirmed his death.

"Good job! Let's help the others!"

With that, Astrid and I moved on to help the others defeating the Therondians. Having Elsa on our side really helped the process; she provided us openings with her magic. All of us managed to defeat every Therondian there was, and there was only one alive. We had him cornered against a rock. Seeing himself was cornered, the man dropped his weapons and raised his hands.

"I-I give up!"

"Was there anybody else following you guys?" I asked, pointing my hatchet to him.

"N-No! There were only us! I swear!"

His obedience gave me a hint that I could use him in the future. "Spare him. We can interrogate him to get information," I commanded to Eret, who was by my side. "Tie him nice and tightly to the mast of the ship. All right, everybody else, let's set a camp."

"Aye, chief," Eret nodded, approaching the Therondian.

With that, I checked on everyone as they progressed with my command. Everybody was here, only slightly bruised, nothing serious.

However, I was wrong.

"Anna?" I spoke to myself. I looked around on the scattered dead bodies of Therondians and found one impaled from below by the distinctive inferno blade that was not lit. I rushed my way to the body and flipped it to see a shocked Anna bathed in blood.

"Anna!"

I helped her sit up and checked for any scar. That quickly explained the blood; it was not hers. I looked to the dead man. He was impaled right on the heart, and from there, blood was still flowing.

I turned to her. "Hey… you're okay?"

She remained silent; eyes widely opened. I used my hands to wipe off the blood on her face, which didn't do much but it had to do.

"I-I just took his life…"

"Oh baby girl…" I pulled her into a hug.

**Please kindly leave reviews :) thank you.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hiccup's POV**

Everyone has set their tents inside the cave to call it a day. With two bonfires lit, it was safe to say that the atmosphere was rather cozy as everyone was enjoying each other's company while really embracing the fact that they're home. Well, almost home.

For the time being, Eret, mother, and I had some interrogation to do.

There he was, tied onto the mast of the Berkian ship so tightly. We tied the man so tight, he almost looked like one with the mast. I cracked my knuckles to intimidate the man. Well, it was more of an attempt, really. The guy barely batted an eye.

"Right, the rule is simple. You answer our questions _honestly_ , and if not, we will torture you with unimaginable violence," I threatened. "Got it?"

He spat right in front of us.

"Fuck you."

Eret grabbed the man by the hair, pulling it hard. "Did you not listen, mate?"

I scrunched my eyes in annoyance. "Just when I thought you'd be the cowardice type when you gave up, you sure can act."

Mother grabbed me by the shoulder. "Let's just jump into the questions, son."

I sensed that she didn't want to be bothered by the man's rock-hard attitude, so I nodded and gave it a shot right away. "Have you discovered the Hidden World?"

For a blink of an eye, the man looked surprised. However, he hid it away. "Heh, what's that?"

"Do not pretend dumb. The Hidden World. The haven for dragons, your people are trying to capture them, are they not?" Eret repeated, banging his head against the mast to let him go. The man grunted in pain before he continued.

"Why don't you go up there and find out by yourself, you lil' bloodthirsty animals…" the man replied. Oh, the irony. The _fucking_ irony. It was genuinely getting under my skin. I could hear my teeth gritting harder than ever. I pulled my hatchet from my belt and aimed it for the head when mother pulled myself away from the temptation.

"Hiccup! We need him alive!" She warned. Initially, I wanted to break free from her grasp, but I calmed myself instead. She was right.

I clicked my tongue. "You do realize that we can do as you say, right?"

"Or get captured in the process and have every each of you killed. Oh, can't wait until we _really_ erase you from existence," the Therondian mocked. This one was too far. Within a blink of an eye, I threw my hatchet at him with full force.

_THUD_

A strand of hair flew onto the air after the blade of the hatchet landed right next to his head, planted onto the mast.

Both Mother and Eret were quite shocked to see my throw. I was honestly quite surprised as well, but I was more overwhelmed by frustration, there was barely any form of shock surfacing on me. This was going to be a long night.

"Hiccup?"

I turned around to see Elsa, concern on her face.

"Can I have a moment, please?"

I glanced to the Therondian, conveying threat in a brief moment before I walked to Elsa.

I sighed deeply. "What is it?"

"It's Anna… I think she needs you. She's in the cabin of our ship."

Oh, Anna. "But I have this to take care of. This stupid imbecile…"

"Let me take care of that," Elsa smiled reassuringly. "I know my ways to get information."

I raised a brow, doubting. "You sure?"

"Uh huh. I was the one who learned the Therondian's intention in raiding this land, remember?" She reminded. "Back in Arendelle, I interrogated men ten times more hideous looking than this lad over here. I got this."

"Oh yeah… true," I nodded.

"Besides, we have Nokk," Elsa reminded. Her remark of Nokk really made me understand that she meant business for this deal, seeing that Nokk literally almost killed me after lying about how I felt to Anna.

She cracked her knuckles and turned around, calling for somebody with a whistle. After that, Nokk jumped out of the water gracefully and landed on the boat. Elsa used her magic to turn the spirit into ice form before giving pets to him.

We both turned around with confidence. Mother and Eret looked unsure for a moment. The Therondian, on the other hand, was quite struck by the view of this creature that he had never seen before.

"Mom, Eret, I'm sorry, but Anna needs me for the moment. Elsa will replace me for the time being," I excused. "Don't you two worry. She will knock some lessons into that tiny head."

"I will try my best. Set him loose," Elsa commanded.

"You sure?" Eret asked.

"Yes. Nokk will play with him for a bit."

Despite still looking unsure, Eret nodded to the command and loosen the rope around our hostage. Within moments, the man was free, but he remained on his spot while keeping his eyes planted onto the mythical horse that was circling him.

"Tell me, sergeant," Elsa started. "Have you found the Hidden World?"

"I do not know what that is. How did you know my rank?" He asked. Nokk threatened the man with a stomp onto the floor. Eret, mother, and I were so preoccupied by the scene, we merely watched.

"I have done the study of my enemy, thank you very much," Elsa replied. "Now, last chance. Have you discovered the Hidden World?"

He smiled cockily. "I do not know, oh queen of Arendelle. You really shouldn't be here, I'd say."

"Well, someone has not been updated. You don't get to tell me where I should be, kind sir," Elsa looked up to Nokk, who was behind the man and gave him a nod. With his hind legs, the horse kicked the Therondian hard, sending him into the air. We watched him into the water and Nokk following him in a graceful manner. Everything about Nokk was graceful.

I turned to Elsa, who was crossing her arms proudly. "Elsa, you have to make sure he doesn't drown to his death. We still need him alive."

Her eyes widened. "Oh yeah. True."

With that, she jumped off the boat and ran on the water toward where the sergeant landed, leaving a trail of ices shaped in snowflake behind. Even she looked graceful while doing so.

"She got this. I'll take my leave for now," I excused to Mother and Eret. They both nodded.

I jumped from one boat to another. I walked to the cabin door and knocked the door. It was small, but I heard Anna responding from inside. I entered the room and there she was, sitting on her bed while staring blankly to the wall. It was initially hard to make out where she was, but the dim lighting by the candle she had put in the middle of the room on the floor helped me out.

"Hey, you okay?" I walked to her, sitting next to her afterwards.

"… I'm not, to be honest. I-I just cannot get my mind away from the fact that I ended a man's life by impaling him with the blade," she buried her face in her knees. My instinct made me envelope her with my arms, trying everything there was in the book to soothe her.

"He would've killed you, Anna," I whispered. "It was self-defense. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Still…"

Anna didn't continue her sentence. Seeing so, I shoved her arms together while giving her kisses by the hair. Soon, she placed her legs over mine while circling her arms around my neck. Her face was buried in the crook of my neck.

"… Did you kill any?" She suddenly asked.

"I did… probably two or three…"

She pulled her face to see mine. "I thought you wouldn't take one's life?"

I stared into her eyes that shouted disbelief at my statement. I took her arms off of my neck and held her hands in mine. I was about to explain something that she was probably going to dislike, so I had to take a deep breath before jumping in.

"You remember… back in Old Berk. When we were in the cove, Astrid showed up and told me that my mother called for me?" I asked. She nodded.

"Well… she taught me how to kill. For self-defense, of course."

"How to kill?" Her brow raised.

"Yes. She did. She always knew that I was not the kind of Viking who was willing to take a life away from a living being. She was the same kind, she admitted. It runs in the family. But if we were to take New Berk by storm, to kill would be… inevitable. So, she taught me how to kill," I explained.

"How did she do so?"

I was really hoping that she was not going to ask that very question. But she did. "There were actually sixteen survivors, Anna. Were."

"Okay. Where is this other one?"

"We left her be in Old Berk. She was an elder, severely injured by the leg from the raid. She had it amputated, but she was suffering from a very hot fever since they amputated it too late. Mother told me that she tried every medicine there was in the isle, but nothing worked. I… ended her life, at her request, to end her suffering," I explained. "I would not like to explain how I did it."

Anna processed my statement for a moment by remaining silent.

"You could say that… my motivation in my recent kills that I've made was her. Ms. Renwitt," I added with a slight chuckle, which faded right away.

"Of course, it was a different context, since it was not a kill I made for self-defense—"

I was cut when Anna crashed herself into me again, hugging me tightly.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

I chuckled sheepishly, running one hand on her back up and down. "Heh, it's all right. I thought I was here to cheer you up, baby girl?"

"Well…" She pulled away from me again. "The first time is always the heaviest, isn't it?"

"It is. Mother had a tough time as well whether to teach me or not, but for the sake of saving the dragons, she had to. It was her toughest call in her life, by far, to teach her son how to kill. I also had my time in processing it all after I did it," I explained. "You'll be all right, Anna. I'm here."

Once again, silence filled the air. There was only the sound of the waterfall from afar, but it was so far that I could only hear her soft breathing. I stared into the fire of the candle while keeping Anna close to me.

"… What's the plan for tomorrow?" She asked.

"We go up. See what's what. That's about it," I replied. "Well, of course, some will stay here to guard the base. I'll probably have Elsa and Eret, that's about it."

"I wanna go," she said, looking almost like she was pleading.

"Then… you shall go," I smiled. "Will you be all right? We're going to need you not inside your head."

"I won't be inside my head," she said as reassuringly as possible. "I promise."

I replied with a nod and a kiss by her temple, which she smiled to. Without my awareness, Anna pulled me into a kiss. It was passionate from the very start, deep, and hard. There was a moment where we 'pulled' away, but our lips remained brushing against each other's. The looks on her eyes; I have never seen them before. She smacked her lips onto mine again, her hand gripping my shirt and pulling it up as she made my entire weight collapse on hers. Everything I sensed from her; her hands on my bare skin, her lips brushing against mine, her soft moans, they demanded more.

I was only hoping nobody would enter the room abruptly.

* * *

Morning arrived. I could tell so from the window of the cabin that allowed sunshine land onto my closed eyelids.

I peeled my eyes slowly but surely. Of course, Anna was the first thing I saw. Her head was rested on my shoulder, a blanket covering her entire body except for her very shoulders, which were exposed. The queen was sleeping soundlessly. She was quite the soothing sight to see, to be completely frank. That is, until she flipped to the other side, away from me, leaving a stain of drool on my shoulder.

"What the fu—"

I bolted upright, cleaning off the drool off of my shoulder with the blanket. It was as hard to clean off as Toothless' drool. God knows what her drool is made of. It was a no brainer for me to rush to the bathroom to clean myself off.

Minutes passed, and I was as fresh as the morning dew once I came out of the bathroom, completely in a different attire There I saw Anna already awake.

"Hey! Morning, Your Majesty!" I greeted. She took her time to recollect herself before greeting me back.

"Morningggg… you've already washed yourself?"

"Yeah, I have. I just had the urge to… um, get prepared for today's trip," I excused. I didn't want to mention her drool. She seemed clueless about it.

"Mkay…" She yawned loudly. "How early do you want to go?"

"Uhh… we can take our time…" I replied.

"Alrighty then… why dun ya come here and cuddle? Come on babe, a cuddle is a must after a night like _that,_ " she blatantly replied while gesturing the empty space next to her. I chuckled uneasily, but she was right. It wouldn't hurt to give the girl some more affection. With that, I sighed in defeat and went over to lay down next to her again. Without being told, Anna scooched herself closer to me, setting herself in the exact position before I discovered the disastrous drool of her while wrapped by the blanket. However, her sweetness blinded me. I kissed her by the forehead, and it didn't take us long until both of us fell asleep again.

Well, I was merely asleep by half. Most of my senses were still on guard, and my skin sensed something wet on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see what it was, and from the edge of her lips streamed down her drool.

"Okay…" I gently placed Anna's head on the pillow instead. I shook her shoulder slowly to wake her up.

"Anna… wake up."

She softly moaned. That's the moment my nose picked a particular sense on the air. Mrs. Hoffman's cooking!

"Anna, breakfast is ready!" I called. Her eyes opened slowly.

"… It is?"

"Yeah! Don't you smell it? It's Mrs. Hoffman's cooking!"

She sniffed a few on the air, and she immediately picked the scent I meant. "You're right!"

"Get dressed. I'll be waiting outside, okay?" I got myself up, but then Anna pulled my collar with a hand and planted her lips on mine. She planted a few more kisses before letting go, her blue eyes staring into my green ones while smiling.

"I love you, Hiccup."

The magic three words that consisted of eight letters very much touched my heart. It warmed me on the inside.

"I love you too, Anna."

I stole a kiss on her cheek and left the room to leave her be. On the outside, the scent of the cooking was much stronger. As if I was guided by it, I walked to the direction of whatever cooking was being prepared by Mrs. Hoffman. There I saw a bonfire with large bowl in the middle. It was half empty, since everyone was circling it, enjoying each's portion on a plate and talking to each other. Elsa spotted my presence and signaled me to sit next to her.

I nodded and grabbed a plate for my own. After grabbing a portion for my breakfast, I sat next to Elsa.

"You got her, tiger," she nudged me.

I didn't understand what she meant. "Sorry, what?"

"I could see why Anna 'needed' you," Elsa smiled dirtily, finishing her breakfast. Oh goodness, she knew. I blew a raspberry in defeat.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"I uh… came in and saw you two 'knocked out'. I knocked the door first, okay?" She said.

I chuckled. "Okay, okay. Well, yeah. I totally didn't expect to end the night like that, to be fair."

She rubbed my shoulder. "Chill, Hiccup. I know I can trust you."

I merely smiled before I continued with my breakfast. It didn't take long until Anna showed up in the circle to have her breakfast. We conversed, laughed, basically enjoying each other's company. Mid-conversation, I scanned the others and their portions. Most people were done with their breakfasts. Seeing so, I stood up and cleared my throat to gain their attention.

"All right. Good morning," I greeted.

"Morning," everybody replied in unison.

"We have finally arrived back to our rightful land. Of course, it was not the smoothest landing there was, since we had company last night. But, no one was harmed, and I'm more than glad to know that," I explained. My listeners nodded down in confirmation.

"Right. Anyway, we are here. Anna, Elsa, Eret and I will climb our way up to the top through the labyrinth to see the situation. The rest of you stay here; keep your eyes on the entrance of the labyrinth and the cave's entrance. They might not know that there's even a cave down behind the waterfall, but we best always keep an eye," I commanded. "Look after each other. They must've already known that eight of their men have disappeared, so stay alert. If we're compromised, we are done for."

My warning inevitably built nerves among them, but we were Vikings.

"That is all from me. Would anybody add something?" I asked.

* * *

**Anna's POV**

Here we go. A climb to the top with my sister, Hiccup, and Mr. Eret. I had myself geared up well; my shield on my back, my blade tucked on my belt, and my leather armor around me along with knee and shoulder pads. Of course, I was the only one equipped the most in the team; Elsa had her power, Eret only brought a sword, and Hiccup his hatchets. After bidding the ones we left behind farewell, we embarked on our journey with Hiccup on the very front, holding a torch.

The 'labyrinth' was not the one I had in mind. At first, there were staircases carved on the rocky path, but soon, they slowly disappeared, either eaten by mosses or other natural causes. I nearly lost my footing several times because of the slippery ground.

The labyrinth was also more like a cave; tight spaces everywhere, very minimum lighting, and _very_ damp. The hexagonal rocks were not so helping in providing space on our path. However, I could see why the Berkians referred it as a labyrinth; multiple paths. We stumbled upon many cross paths, each with different altitudes and looks. However, Hiccup always seemed confident with his decision whenever we had to pick a path. But then it hit me.

"Hiccup?" I called.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"Um… Did your people know about this labyrinth?" I asked. "You know… some might've run away to here."

Before he could reply, Eret accidentally kicked something metallic while walking. When he neared his torch to the direction of whatever he kicked, I gasped at the sight.

"Well, Your Majesty… there's your answer. The Therondians chased 'em," Eret answered.

It was a Viking's helm, stained in blood. I was so not interested in finding the corpse of the owner of this helm. I was still recovering from the tragedy last night, so I looked away and continued the climb.

Since we were climbing, it was inevitable for us to take steep terrain as we progressed on. I swore time was walking slower if we were to do something tiring, like this.

"How long until we reach the top, Hiccup?" Elsa asked.

"Just a moment…" He answered. Somehow, he didn't sound tired at all. I could only wonder how. And why.

Before we were going to take the steep route because of its obvious steepness, Hiccup and Eret stopped at a wall.

"Found something, boys?" I asked.

Hiccup only waved to me and Elsa to say to come over, not even batting an eye. They remained staring at the seemingly interesting wall of rock in front of them.

"See anything particularly interesting?" Eret asked with a smile. I scanned the wall thoroughly with the available lighting. I found nothing.

"Nu uh… I don't see anything," I replied.

"No wait, Anna—look," Elsa pointed at the wall. Closing one eye, I carefully looked to the 'thing' her finger pointed at, and discovered a line. My eyes followed the line and discovered what the fuss was all about; there was a door in front of us!

"You got good eyes, Elsa," Hiccup complimented. "Now help me with this."

Both Hiccup and Eret began to push the wall with their shoulders. Elsa and I joined force, and slowly, we sensed the wall moving. It really took the four of us to really move the heavy rocky door all the way, until we were inside a large round chamber.

It was hard to make out at first, but the chamber we were in was so tall, and on top, a tiny speck of light illuminated the chamber, though its light barely reached where we were. I assumed that speck was our way to the top of the island. It was almost like we were inside a tower!

"Let's close it first, ladies," Hiccup called. Seeing that the boys were doing the job on their own, Elsa and I helped them right away. After some good grunts, we closed the door.

"Wow… where are we?" Elsa asked, looking up above the chamber. I was about to ask the same thing, but I was so preoccupied by the amazing interior of the environment.

"We call it the Sky Crane," Eret answered, gesturing to what seemed to be an elevator with his torch. Only after he gave enough lighting to reveal it did we notice the mechanism the elevator towering to the top of the chamber, in which I was sure it reached the top. How convenient!

"We made this a long time ago, but never really used it since there was not much to see down there. Did you think we were going to waste our energy by climbing our way up?" Hiccup chuckled. "Come."

We stepped on the wooden elevator, old creaking noise sounding as each of us stepped on. It was not the most comfortable thing to hear since it only indicated that the mechanism was old.

"All right, hopefully we don't plummet into our death…" Hiccup hoped after closing the door of the elevator. With a pull of a lever, the elevator began to rise to the top. It was slow, but it was more convenient than walking.

There was enough space for all of us to sit down, so we sat down. It was the perfect time for a conversation, and Elsa seemed to have something to say as she rounded her mouth.

"Ah, how could I forget?" Elsa said, smacking her own forehead. "Hiccup, we haven't told you about the result of last night's interrogation."

"Ah yes. We have not," Eret added. "We received some interesting information."

Hiccup was drawn interested right away. "All right. Tell me."

Elsa sighed deeply before beginning. "The Therondians have… sadly, already got their hands on the dragons. So, do not be surprised if the first thing we hear once we reach the top is some dragon's cries."

Hiccup clicked his tongue, resting his chin on his hand. "Damn it…"

Eret continued. "The sergeant was not so informative due to his low rank… but it appears that the Therondians have this man whose specialty in dragons helped them lure the dragons out of the Hidden World. I don't know what it is, but it's working, apparently. Right now, as we speak, their ships are returning with more dragons, finishing the first wave. They are going to load all the dragons they have gathered on the island and return to Therondia to sell them."

"Do you not have any more information regarding this man and his specialty?" I asked.

Eret shook his head. "I'm afraid not. The sergeant never even saw the man himself, just rumors of him."

Hiccup processed everything for a moment. I looked up to see just how much we had progressed, and the speck of light still seemed small. We were still far away from the top.

"So… if they are finishing their first wave of shipment, does that mean there will be no ships at the entrance of the Hidden World?" Hiccup asked.

"Exactly," Elsa replied. "Every Therondian ship will have been here in a matter of… the sergeant said that they embarked back from there, the Hidden World, six days ago. How long do you think it will take them to get back here?"

"Six days…" Hiccup murmured. "It's a nine days boat trip from here to the Hidden World… So, three more days until we have all Therondians back here. If not, two."

We watched Hiccup pondering on his own while staring to the floor of the elevator. Elsa, on the other hand, looked a bit uneasy with herself, biting her bottom lip, as if she had more to say.

"Elsa, you're okay?" I asked.

She looked to me in the same manner. "There's one more thing, Anna… I'm afraid it involves our home."

Oh no.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The sergeant told me that… Therondia was going to send a fleet of ships to Arendelle for… 'diplomacy' matter within a week. This could very well be a threat," she paused, gulping nervously, "Of a war."

My stomach dropped at the disheartening news.

"We have to be there before they get to our home," Elsa completed. It was unnoticed, but Hiccup had his jaw dropped at the news as well. It was more than safe to say that we had two overwhelmed leaders on this very small platform.

The platform stopped abruptly. All of us looked above and discovered the 'speck' of light we had earlier was already in reach. I could see trees and grass and sense the much fresher air.

"We're here," Eret spoke.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hiccup's POV**

Eret reached the lid above our heads and gave it a push. It needed him some extra force since the lid had not been opened for _years_ and roots and vines made it harder for him to open it. But, with extra pairs of hands, and some cutting on the vines and roots, we managed to open the lid, which fully exposed us to the sunlight. It blinded me for a moment.

We climbed our way up one by one. Once on the surface, I took my moment. The woods of New Raven Point. It's been _too_ long. The woods were still greener than ever, probably even thicker; but that quickly changed once I laid my eyes upon a tree bark that was never there. Behind it, I spotted some more.

"Must be their doing, aye Chief?" Eret asked, examining the same thing.

"Yeah… I wouldn't be surprised if they have done some redecorating," I cracked my knuckles in irritation. I turned around to the royal sisters, who were doing the same thing as I was, admiring the environment.

"Don't think we've ever seen anything greener than this, Hiccup," Elsa admitted while circling around. "I mean, it's everywhere… I can barely spot a spot where it isn't green—oh."

She cut herself when she spotted the tree bark I noticed previously.

"Well, welcome to New Berk, our loyal Arendellian partner," I welcomed formally. "Let's maintain stealth. We'll never know who's in the woods."

The two sisters nodded and followed my lead. Usually, a walk in the New Raven Point would always be the leisurely kind. Its greenness was something we adored as Berkians. It was a few of other perfect escapes that I would go to whenever I had myself worn out after a full day of chieftain works. But now, it's an exception. We had our awareness level to the max to every single direction.

Moving from another tree to another one, peeking from one bush to another, we finally saw a sign of civilization. Sadly, as we progressed in closing in, I learned that it was no longer the Berkian civilization that I knew before.

We reached a relatively high point on top of a hill that was still covered in trees. Hiding behind a tree, I inspected the civilization ahead of me. Activity was minimum, since it was very early in the morning. I reckoned the Therondians were not much of early birds, either. The terrain was very much still the same; I recognized the hills, the plaza, but one big difference made me click my tongue. Many of the original houses were brought into the ground, replaced by ones that I barely recognized. Well, they're Therondian. There were still a few original Berkian buildings, but its number was depressing to see, let alone their conditions.

I kept scanning the view that I had, and a gasp escaped my throat when I saw the absence of one particular object.

"W-Where is it?" I breathed. A hand landed behind me; it was Anna, looking puzzled by my question.

"Where's what, Hiccup?" She asked.

"Oh… the statue of my father… We had it built in memory of him," I responded. "It was large, it's supposed to be over there, by the hill," I pointed to the direction I referred, "but it's not there!"

Anna remained silent, only letting out a sigh.

"Where do you reckon they keep the dragons, Hiccup?" Eret approached.

I scanned the buildings ahead of me to make a guess of where the dragons were resided. However, nothing really fitted my qualification. I suppose in order to keep overly-grown reptiles, you would need space to do so, right? But neither of the Therondian buildings within my sight seemed to be able to keep dragons inside them.

"I dunno… I wonder?" I asked myself.

"How about that building over there?" Elsa pointed to a direction. All of us turned to see what she meant.

It was a large building, almost like a dome, sitting behind the trees. In my memory, my people never built such building, so it must be new. The color of the dome itself was green, almost like it was meant to mimic the color of the trees for whatever reason. From our tall point of view, we could see a large Therondian sigil painted on top of the dome. The building itself looked totally out of place, as the other buildings that the Therondians built only seemed to be utilizing as normal houses or workshops.

"Good find, Elsa," I complimented. I scanned the route we were to take to get to the place.

"We would need to… go around inside the woods. We can't risk entering the village, there are too many eyes that can spot us," I analyzed.

"Come to think, we should've gone during dawn, don't you guys think so?" Anna asked, holding her chin.

I processed her proposal, and so did Elsa and Eret. The two seemed to agree with the idea as they slowly nodded. Anna was right, we probably should've gone during dawn.

"But we're already here," Eret said. "Sure, it will be harder, but the woods are our best friend, for the moment. We can sneak our way in the woods."

"Yeah. It will be a much longer walk, but we have an entire day. Let's go," I gestured the three to follow my lead. I led the three along the woods, close enough to civilization to keep our eyes out for anyone who might approach us unintentionally and deep enough to have our movement undetected.

Along our way, obstacles were there to put it into a halt several times. At one point, we had to stay down as two Therondians were seen crossing the woods back to the village while carrying a basket of fish. At another point, we encountered a man strolling by, probably doing his morning walk. We had to wait for a good five minutes until he was really deep into the woods since he walked so slowly. Sure, it was only five minutes, but five minutes of waiting for something like this felt like fifteen.

The most ridiculous one was the one Anna spotted. A movement inside a bush. We immediately ducked down to avoid being spotted. Through the leaves, we watched the bush, until what seemed to be a couple walked out of it. They were doing finishing touches on their attire as they walked. It could only mean one thing, the couple just had one hell of a night.

"Perhaps… they didn't have any room in the village?" Anna commented in a whisper with 'optimism'.

"At least they're done with it. Were they still asleep, we would've never found them at all," Elsa replied.

The four of us proceeded to continue our journey to the dome after the couple was gone. We kept approaching the dome until it made me realize what the dome really was judging from the entrance of it.

"Eret? Are you seeing this?" I asked.

"Clearly, chief. Can't believe they'd done it," he replied.

The dome that was built was a part of the old village hall. The entrance of the place was the entrance of the village hall, but the rest of it was completely reconstructed into something else. The village hall was the only building on the island that had clearings around it. Hence, it would make sense why the Therondians built something so big on this very spot to keep whatever's inside it.

From a safe distance, still in the woods, I saw two guards guarding the entrance of the dome.

"How do we get inside?" I asked myself.

Almost like coincidence, the two guards entered the building itself. Seeing that the clearings around the dome was clear from anybody, I took the chance and gestured the others to follow my lead in a rush.

We rushed across the clearings toward the entrance. Through the big door we entered the building. We were inside the small lobby of the hall that weirdly didn't change at all from I last left the place, which gave us an advantage.

"We wait them until they return. Behind the statues, now!" I commanded. There were large statues inside the lobby, reminiscent of our old friends that had left us for good; dragons. Behind these statues we kept our breaths low and steady. From the door across the entrance ones, we heard footsteps. I took a peek, and it was the same two guards, with some breads in their hands.

"By the way, did you hear anything from the eight men that were sent to map the underground labyrinth?" One man asked.

"Nothing. Maybe they're lost. I heard it's quite the large place down there," the other man replied.

"You think there are still Vikings down there?"

"Nah, don't think so. Bet there's nothing to eat down there, let alone sunlight to enjoy."

With that, the two took their conversation back outside. I came out of hiding after giving a signal that it was clear to do so.

"So, they know," Eret said.

"Yeah, best we hurry," Anna replied. We slowly entered the double door that led us to another room that seemed like an office or something, filled with tables, couches, books, files; basic office stuff. Luckily, there was nobody inside, but this was definitely not a part of the interior of the old village hall.

"What is this?..." I asked myself again. I grabbed several files and discovered that they were old Berkian documentaries of the dragons. I even found several ones that I wrote by myself. Anna and Elsa joined my inspection of these documents.

"Quota to fill… two hundred dragons," Elsa spoke of the writing of a piece of paper she randomly picked.

"King Alduin, King Edward VII, Queen De La… how do you read this? I think these are the names of the customers of the dragons, as there are numbers next to them," Anna said, examining a piece of paper with a long list of names on it. "This list goes on and on."

I grabbed a random file and tried to read into it. There was a drawing of what seemed to be… black dust, or sand. It seemed important, so I gave it a read.

"Huh?" I raised a brow.

"What is it?" Anna asked.

"It says… that the Therondians used this sand, or substance, whatever, to control the dragons. The keyword in here is 'fear', they control the dragons with fear," I explained. "What could it possibly be?"

"Any information of the 'man' that our guy referred?" Anna asked. "There might be a lead."

Elsa shifted from paper to paper on the table. "I don't see anything…"

"Hiccup? You might want to see this."

We turned around to Eret, who was looking out of window that neither of us really noticed it was there. We approached the man and looked out of the window. The view dropped our jaws.

It was a giant circular hall, filled with dragons kept in cages, varying from all sizes and shapes and colors. I spotted Deadly Nadders, Gronckles, Timberjacks, Raincutters, Hideous Zipplebacks, _everything!_ Most of the dragons were asleep, so not much dragons were producing any cry or anything. Several Therondian men were organizing the placement of the cages with heavy machineries that I've never seen before. In the process, they often used violence if one dragon were to attempt to harm them. The scene, of course, grew anger inside me.

"Let's take a closer look," I proposed. The three nodded and followed my lead. We entered a series of doors that led us to rooms that we didn't bother checking until we were inside the dome. We quickly hid ourselves behind empty cages as we made our way to the ones that were already filled with dragons by circling the dome.

"Elsa, Anna, whatever you do, do not make any sudden movement," I warned the sisters as we walked in silence. "Do not be startled if they suddenly intimidate you or something, kay?"

They nodded.

Slowly but surely, we reached the area where the filled cages were. We stopped behind one that was filled with Deadly Nadders, Astrid's favorite. The dragons obviously noticed our presences, but they remained collected and calm, and curious. Most likely due to our different appearances from the usual Therondians and our slow movement.

"They're beautiful… and seem…to be in one piece," Anna commented. "You think the Therondians are only going to ship them?"

"I suppose so," I replied, inspecting the cage in front of me. The bars were incredibly thick, nothing compared to the ones that were used to keep human prisoners. Perhaps five times thicker.

"Elsa, can your magic break this?" I gestured to the bars. She touched the bars and gave them gentle knocks.

"I think I can… but it will take a very looooong time, I'm afraid," she admitted.

"Figures…" I replied. I grabbed my chin, pondering of a quick and effective method to release the dragons. While doing so, one really curious Nadder approached us from behind the bars. Its large nostrils were right in front of us, breathing out steaming hot breath. The sisters backed off a few steps, but Eret and I remained still, being the more experienced ones in interacting with dragons.

"Hi there…" I greeted. I stared into the dragon's eyes reassuringly. Slowly but surely, I laid a hand on the dragon's nose, and gave it a rub. The dragon grumbled lowly, tilting its head down and closing its eyes, a sign of trust. Eret soon joined in, giving the dragon affection. However, the Arendellian sisters were hesitant.

"Hey," I called for them. "Come on."

The two walked slowly. I gently took their hands and made them open for the dragon, and slowly pulled them between the bars, close enough for the dragons to realize their presences.

"Let it come to you," I softly spoke.

The Nadder gave their hands a sniff. Both Elsa and Anna were so scared, their hands were shaking and they couldn't look up to the dragon. However, the dragon simply closed its eyes again and closed the gap between it and the sisters' hands. Once making contact, they opened their eyes in disbelief.

"Whoa…" Anna said. "You're beautiful…"

The sisters proceeded to really feel the dragon's smooth scales. They seemed rough from the outside, but really, they were as smooth as a polished table. That must've have surprised the Arendellian.

"This species is the one Astrid used to have," Eret informed. "Stormfly was her name. Wonder if she's one of these?"

"Oh? Astrid had one of these?" Elsa asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Beautiful one, isn't it?" Eret asked.

"Yeah… Wow, very lucky of her to keep one of these…" Elsa replied.

I scanned the other Deadly Nadders inside the cage, studying them one by one to determine whether or not either of the Nadders was Astrid's old one.

"I don't think Stormfly is either of these… let's hope not," I said. "Either way, we still need to find out a way to get the dragons out of these cages. No way we're going to find the key for each cage," I gestured to the large key of the cage.

"How about freezing the _lock?_ " Anna suggested, still having her hand on the Nadder.

Elsa and I approached the lock of the cage, which was placed on the bottom of the cage. The door of the cage was basically one of the four vertical sides, with double hinges on top. Elsa knelt down to take a closer look.

"This lock… I've never seen it before. Must be one of their inventions. Therondia and their brains, huh," Elsa scoffed. "Breaking this into pieces by freezing it will still take me a long time, too. It's so big. Look at it."

I scratched my hair. "True…"

All of us inspected the cage thoroughly. While doing so, we noticed that the Therondian workers had apparently left their stations, so their absences provided us more time and space to work.

"You know what? Let's check the other cages. Who knows if they are different models that require different approach," I suggested.

Anna, Eret, and Elsa nodded to the suggestion. We bid a little farewell to the Nadders before leaving them to another part of the dome. While walking, Anna suddenly grabbed me by the arm.

"Hiccup? Is that Toothless?" Anna pointed to a direction. Hearing the name, I immediately looked to the very cage she pointed

She was right!

"Oh goodness!" I breathed. I rushed my way toward the cage and stopped by it. The Night Fury was not alone, he was accompanied by his partner, the Light Fury, and to my surprise, a Stormcutter that belonged to no one else but my mother, Cloudjumper!

"Toothless!" I called with a loud whisper. The dragons turned to me and immediately hissed, since they never realized of my arrival. Both Cloudjumper and Toothless approached me steadily, their eyes still showing distrust. Despite very much excited to see my old friend, I kept my approach gentle and not sudden. I did the same procedure; I raised my hand, looked away, and let the dragons come to me.

I could hear sniffing. Next thing I knew was my hand was licked off.

I turned to see both Toothless and Cloudjumper looking excited and all, very much remembering me. However, the bars between us prevented the dragons from crashing themselves into me. Seeing so, I hugged my dragon from behind the bars as much as I could. It was a hard attempt, but it worked.

"I miss you too, bud, haha!" I gave the Night Fury rubs with one hand, and the Stormcutter scratches by the nose with the other. I then noticed the Eret, Anna, and Elsa simply watching me being 'attacked' with affection from behind while smiling.

"Hey, Toothless, you must remember Eret. But do you remember Elsa and Anna?" I asked, pulling away from the dragon's hug and gesturing to the sisters. The Night Fury inspected the duo as they approached the dragon himself. Anna and Elsa knelt down to see the dragon more closely.

"Hi…" Anna greeted. Elsa greeted with the same phrase. They leaned their hands closer to Toothless, and stopped when it was close enough for him to smell the scent of them. Once done, the two landed their hands on the dragon's nose gently. The dragon closes his eyes, accepting them.

"He does remember you two," I smiled.

Smiling in relief, the sisters began to give the dragon scratches.

"What are the odds that Toothless was kept in the same cell as your mother's Cloudjumber?" Eret asked, who was petting the Stormcutter.

"That's Valka's dragon?" Anna asked. "He looks so magnificent!"

"I know, right? What are the chances—wait."

I stopped myself when I saw some bruises and cuts on mother's dragon, particularly on the wing area. They were not major, but still seemed painful, and they were all over the dragon's four wings.

"What could've possibly caused these marks?..." I approached Cloudjumper to have a better look.

"Cloudjumper is not the only one, I'm afraid," Eret replied. "Look at Toothless."

I looked to Toothless and discovered the same bruises and cuts on his wings. Some even were found on his spine. Luckily, his wing tail was still intact.

"They will pay for this…" I cursed under my breath.

"What about that one back there?" Anna asked, referring to the Light Fury on the other end of the cage. She was merely laying down while watching us curiously. The dragons noticed that we were looking at the Light Fury curiously, so Toothless gave the dragon a low grumble, calling for her to come over.

The Light Fury slowly rose from her position, right away giving away the reason why she preferred to remain laying down in the first place. There was a big bulge on her stomach area. The dragon was pregnant!

"Hiccup, is the Light Fury pregnant?" Eret asked in disbelief, apparently noticing the sight as well.

"She is… Hoo boy, we will have to handle her extra gently once we free the dragons," I replied. Once close enough, the dragon laid down again. Her attention was directed to Elsa, somehow.

"I think she likes you, Elsa," Anna suggested. "You two are look-alikes, somehow."

Her sister raised a brow, giving her hand to the dragon slowly. "How so?"

"She resembles you so well, look at her!" Anna chuckled. "Wouldn't you guys agree?" She looked up to me and Eret. I agreed to the idea, so I nodded my head down. Eret seemed to agree as well.

Almost startling, the Light Fury touched Elsa by the hand with her nose. Her eyes were shut, showing trust to the fifth spirit of Northuldra. The dragon even purred, in a way.

"Oh, you are beautiful…" Elsa softly spoke. "Does she have a name?"

I pondered for a moment, sharing a glance with Eret who seemed to have the same idea. The Light Fury never received a name. Though, to be fair, she never did stick around for long enough for us to name her.

"No, she doesn't. I'll let you decide what it should be, Els," I suggested. The blonde's mouth rounded widely.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh. Why would I not be?" I shrugged.

"Okay… I'll think of a name…" She said, giving the dragon more affection and occasionally sharing them to the Night Fury as well.

We chuckled at the sight of Elsa falling in love with the Light Fury. I let the two bond together while inspecting the cage from every angle. While doing so, my eyes caught something substances lying on the horizontal bars. I grabbed a pinch and had a closer look.

"What is this?..." I asked.

Eret approached me and had a closer look as well. "Some sort of… black dust?"

"Is this the thing that they used to control the dragons?" I asked.

"Control the dragons?" Eret raised a brow.

"In the office, I found some papers describing this very thing. It said that the dust causes fear, and Therondia utilized this to control the dragons," I explained. "This could very well be it."

"How does it even work?" Eret asked.

"I don't know… Maybe it's chemical? Maybe, if inhaled, the effect will kick in? I mean, how else is a bit of dust supposed to cause such fear?" I shrugged, letting go of the pinch I had. "Let's keep looking."

"Hiccup?" Anna called.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"I think I have an idea."

I walked over to Anna. "What's up?"

"The hinges," she pointed up to the two hinges of the door of the cage. "They seem small and weak. Maybe they are easy to freeze and break. What do you think, sis?"

Elsa looked up to the objects that Anna referred. "Hmm… I think I can break it within ten seconds, eleven tops. But one problem, there are _many_ cages to open," she gestured to the other hundreds of cages inside the dome. "Not that I do not want to do the job, but I think all of us will have to work together to open all of these cages."

"Brute force? A swing of a hammer or axe will surely break 'em," Eret suggested.

"Too much noise. It will distract too much attention," I rejected.

The three of us crossed our arms, almost simultaneously, pondering of a solution for the case. We needed a solution that would work effective, fast, and silently. Elsa's ice magic would be one, but making her work on all cages would be too slow and tiring for her. Brute force will produce too much noise. What could possibly solve this problem?

My eyes spotted some dragon saliva on the bars left by Cloudjumper. The saliva reminded me of the time attempting to refuel my inferno blade with it. But I ended up being a laughing stock since the power of the saliva was uncontrollable, though it was only mother who was there to spectate me.

Wait, that could be it.

"Anna, give me your blade," I requested out of the blue.

She shoved it out of her belt. "What for?"

"I have a solution," I took the blade. "We'll burn the hinges."

I took out the canisters of the fuel of the blade from inside the handle. "I once had a funny incident with Cloudjumper's saliva—"

"Eww…" Anna commented.

"… Not that. In the incident, I discovered that a Stormcutter, this species right here, possesses a very strong saliva. Now, a dragon's saliva is the fuel of the dragon's flame breath. And like we've seen before, Eret, Cloudjumper is quite the… dragon when it comes to burning stuff, right?" I asked.

"You're right. His fire is particularly stronger than other dragons," Eret replied.

I collected the saliva on the bars with the canisters, and some more on Cloudjumper's own tongue to make sure every canister was filled. "I think I can make a device or something… to focus the fire and use it as the dragon's tickets out of these cages. Yeah… yeah, I already have a blueprint inside this head," I nodded vigorously. After done collecting, I returned the canisters into the blade and handed it back to Anna.

"Now, don't turn on the flame of the blade for now," I warned her.

"Why?"

"Well, last time I did it, I was trashed around by its immense fire. Considering this is a prototype, it will most likely explode," I chuckled. The warning was not taken nicely as Anna carefully shoved it in her belt back.

"You think you can make it in a day or two, Hiccup?" Elsa asked.

"Give me a day. And extra brains to think of the mechanism, if you may, then I will probably, and hopefully, finish it within less than a day!" I crossed my arm in confidence.

_CLUNK_

All of us turned to the source of the noise. Footsteps followed after the noise, _tons of them._

"All right, back to work, boys! I want this mess sorted out by noon!" A man exclaimed.

"We gotta go," Eret whispered.

Seeing this, I gave my last pets to the dragons. "We will return, okay?"

Eret, Elsa, and Anna did the same thing I did. The dragons looked up to us with full hope with their large round eyes. With that, we snuck behind the cages again to avoid being seen. Through the bars, we saw more men coming in. I led the three to hide in a relatively tight but safe spot between many cages. I kept watching the entrance in which the workers came in from until it was shut. Once shut, I led Eret, Anna, and Elsa out of hiding back to the way we came from.

Fortunately, no one was in our way. We made it back to the office and had ourselves a moment to catch our breath. We knew that we couldn't spend more time in here, so after giving the view of the cages one last look, we snuck our way out of the dome. Once outside, we rushed ourselves into the woods and crept along the trees to maintain stealth.

"That was nicely done…" Anna spoke, sounding proud.

"Heh… say that once we're back on the elevator…" I replied.

We followed the same route we took to get to the dome to return to New Raven Point. Luckily, we stumbled upon no Therondian who were returning after fishing, or a Therondian who was doing his morning walk, or a Therondian couple who just had a 'sleepover' in the woods. However, the activity in the village was much more active, forcing us to be more aware of our surroundings to the max.

It was a long walk. Walking while maintaining stealth is always bound to be a long walk, regardless of the distance. That's what I learned once we finally reached the New Raven Point.

With one final check, I gave the signal to the others that it was safe to come out to the clearing.

"This is it, right? This is where we came from?" Anna asked, panting her lungs out. "Gosh, my heart has never rushed this hard for _this_ long before!"

"Yeah, we're here," I looked for the lid we came out from and spotted it right away inside the heavy vines and bushes. "Control your breathing, Anna."

I carefully lifted the vines and bushes on top of the lid to give space for the others to come in. "Inside, go."

One by one, they entered the lid. Anna was the last one to come in, "Almost like entering a manhole."

"Manhole?" I asked.

Anna stopped in her track. "Uh, it's this hole, on the ground, like this one! But it doesn't have any openings on the lid, so yeah," she slid onto the platform, landing on it.

I gave the surroundings one final check to make sure no one witnessed us. Nobody was around. With that, I made my way into the hole, landing hard on the wooden elevator. Eret shut the lid above us afterwards.

"All right…" I pulled the lever of the elevator and we started descending.

"That was super nicely done," Anna clapped her hands.

"True. Mission successful," Elsa added.

_CRACK_

We looked up above and saw a crack on the mechanism of the elevator. Not to mention the rope that carried the weight of the whole elevator was worn out on one spot.

"We spoke too soon—" I warned.

_CRACK—SNAP!_

The whole elevator plummeted with us on it.

"WHOAAA—"

**There's a deleted scene of HTTYD2 that shows Hiccup using Cloudjumper's saliva as the fuel for his inferno blade. You can look it up on YouTube (: thanks for reading, cheers.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Anna's POV**

"WHOAAAAAAAA—"

I could swear it was the highest drop I've ever experienced in my life; it felt longer than the one I experienced with Kristoff after Marshmallow told us to go away. I had my eyes shut in the entire time until I landed on something soft. Only after I opened my eyes and felt the texture of my landing spot did I realize that I landed on snow. I wonder whose doing it was.

I really did wonder because it was pitch black.

"Guys? Are you guys alive? Oh please tell me you're alive!" I asked to the darkness. The 'darkness' replied with echoes of my sentences before I could hear groans from it.

"Ughh… Snow?" That sounded like Eret, since he had a deep voice and this was deep as well.

"Phew, I made it just in time!" This sounded like Elsa. They sounded like they were okay.

"Elsa! Eret! Thank goodness!" I cheered, standing up. "Where's Hiccup?"

I looked left and right, up and down, and found not even any sign of light to rely on. Looking at nothing in the darkness was not the most pleasant experience to date. Each second was starting to mentally affect me from anxiety caused by the darkness and the absence of Hiccup.

"Hiccup?!" I called. I then remembered something, my inferno blade! I grabbed it from my belt and pressed the button to pull out the blade itself. With another press of a different button, I ignited the flame on it.

Big mistake.

"WHOA!—WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

The flame of the blade was so blazing, its force trashed me around as if I was nothing. I then remembered what Hiccup did to the canisters that contained the fuel of the fire previously, which was Valka's dragon's saliva. It made me spun and spun, but it did light the interior of the place we were in, and though only for a split second, I saw my sister, Eret, and last but not least, Hiccup, who was still trying to regain his composure.

I put off the fire after managing to reach for it. My head was spinning.

"Let me do the lighting, Anna," Elsa spoke. Inside the darkness, she summoned a flurry of frost which emitted light. Despite with my spinning head, I saw Eret behind her, looking in awe at the frost she summoned.

With the lighting Elsa provided, I looked again for Hiccup. There he was, kneeling on a pile of snow. Next to him was the wreckage of the elevator, completely destroyed due to the fall.

I rushed over to his side. "Hiccup! Are you okay?"

"Ugh… never felt better," he dusted off the debris on his shoulder. I helped him stand up afterwards.

"I told you not to ignite it," Hiccup said, gesturing to the blade in my hand.

"Well, sorry… I forgot," I replied. "Geez… that was quite the fall, not sure we're in the chamber where we found the elevator though…" I looked around.

"Yeah… where are we, chief?" Eret asked.

With the limited lighting, I could not see the ends of the environment we were in. All I could see was a level ground, which had weird patterns on it, as if something once flowed and froze. When I looked up, it was nothing but pitch black again.

"I don't know… Elsa, could you somehow summon bigger ice with brighter light?" Hiccup requested.

"One bigger ice with brighter light comin' up," Elsa replied. With a wave of hand, she tossed a large icicle upwards, which never seemed to stop for a good ten seconds until it made contact with something. Once contacting, the icicle turned into smaller pieces and spread across all directions, emitting much brighter lighting in the environment. We could see everything now.

That's the moment when I learned that the rest of the environment was exactly the same as the one I spotted before Elsa sent the icicle. We were inside a giant roughly circular room in which its floor is made out of overlapping frozen minerals that I couldn't recognize what.

"Any idea what this is, Hiccup?" I asked.

Hiccup knelt down and grabbed a pinch of a gravels. "This is volcanic mineral."

My jaw dropped. "Wait, what?"

"This whole room is… frozen lava. The smell, the air," he sniffed the air, "it's very distinct. It's volcanic. And if you listen closely…"

He raised a finger and focused on his hearing alone. We did the same thing and realized of one strange constant noise emitting from below the ground. It sounded like something was moving from underneath. Things were about to turn worse.

"It's… active?" Elsa asked.

"I'm afraid…" Hiccup breathed. "The whole island is one giant… volcano. I never knew that…"

The Viking looked up, pointing to the same direction. That's when we noticed there was a hole on the ceiling of the room. "We fell from the very top. The elevator apparently breached a hole on the floor, which I never noticed was _that_ thin, and we fell into the hole, into this, well, frozen crater, I suppose."

"I hope our fall didn't cause it to trigger or anything…" Elsa spoke, worry screaming in her tone.

"I don't think so. It will take a bigger force to trigger the volcano," he dusted off his hand from the volcanic mineral he had. "Not that I'm hoping there will be one, though. Goodness, New Berk is basically one giant volcano."

"Whoa…" I responded.

The four of us processed the newly founded information in silence. I knelt down to meet the literal volcanic floor. This was something new in my life, since I only have heard of information of volcano, but have never seen one even from a distance. And here I am, sitting inside one.

"Well, we learn something new every day," I spoke, shattering the silence. "Today, we learned where Therondia kept the dragons, and New Berk is one giant active volcano. That's certainly going to drop some jaws," I shrugged.

"It's already making mine drop, that's for sure," Eret added.

"And mine," Elsa added, chuckling slightly.

I looked to Hiccup, waiting for a response from him. "Well, I'm more like terrified, to be completely frank."

"Well, I'd be too," I chuckled. "But let's focus on getting out of here, shall we?"

"We shall," Hiccup replied, looking up. "How are we gonna reach up there?"

"I think I can come up with something…" Elsa spoke, grabbing her chin. She gestured to all of us to come over, "Get close, people."

I was sure neither of us knew what she had on mind, but we trusted her and followed her command. We approached her and remained so. With a stomp to the ground, Elsa summoned her magic from below. Suddenly, a giant ice pillar materialized from underneath, towering upwards slowly with us on the very top. The provided space right on top of it was enough for the four of us, so we still could move freely.

The speed of the ice pillar taking us upwards was relatively slow, but sure. Seeing so, all of us sat down while looking at our destination.

"Well, your magic never stops to amaze, Your Majesty," Hiccup complimented.

"I'd say the same," Eret added.

"Thank you, boys," Elsa smiled.

"I think I already know the replacement for the broken elevator, too," Hiccup crossed his arms confidently.

Once we reached the top, each of us climbed the hole that the elevator made. With a little boost from Elsa magic, I hopped onto the elevator chamber seamlessly, though almost slipping on the process, which gave Hiccup, Elsa, and Eret a heart attack.

We made our way back to the basecamp with the same route we took. Through narrow gaps, low grounds, climbs, we eventually reached the destination without any problem. There, everyone was minding their own business; either training, or chilling, or sleeping.

Hiccup called for an immediate gathering once we arrived back at the basecamp. Everyone was already on their feet since they were so curious of what we had to say after the recon mission we had embarked to. Once everyone had been gathered, I sat next to Hiccup and he began his speech.

"Right, so, we learned a thing or two after out outing. First, yes, it's positive. Therondia sadly have captured some dragons. I roughly counted there were…" He began murmuring numbers under his breath to make a guess.

"I think there were around fifty?" I guessed.

"I think it's seventy. Yeah, seventy," he faced the crowd again. "Seventy dragons, I believe. Nadders, Timberjacks, Gronckles, many more."

"Where are they kept?" Astrid asked.

"In the village hall," Hiccup replied.

"The village hall?" Valka replied, raising an eyebrow in disbelief at the information.

Hiccup shrugged. "Or what used to be the village hall, I suppose. Therondia have done some redecorating. They kept the entrance, but that's it… the rest is completely redone. It's turned into one giant dome, housing the dragons in cages. Now in the dome, we found some information as well. About the… black dust…"

Hiccup paused himself and turned to me. "Wait, did we find any more information about that weird substance?"

"The what?" I asked.

"The black dust. The one that was said to use to control the dragons," he reminded.

"Oh… that. No, I don't think we found anything about it," I shrugged.

"Okay…" the chief turned back to his people. "Never mind that. We also found that they were going for the two hundred quota mark. After reaching that number, they will begin shipping to wherever these dragons are demanded. We saw a list of rulers from places we've never heard, and we believe these are the buyers of these dragons. We cannot allow that."

A pause took place.

"What are you planning on doing?" Fishleg asked.

"We free the dragons after the last shipment from the Hidden World arrives. I believe they are to arrive within three days?" He glanced to me, asking for confirmation. I nodded at him.

"Three days. We will set a patrol to keep an eye to the east to see when they arrive. When they do, we wait until they bring the cages onto the ships, and that's when the ambush begins," Hiccup exclaimed, optimism sounding very clearly in his voice. His confidence spread the same thing to his listeners as they shouted 'woohoo' and yeah'.

He continued. "I also have planned it to the detail, too. Mind you, the cages used to keep the dragons are incredibly strong. The bars are thicker than the ones Grimmel's army used to have. So, I need to remind you to break the hinges of the cages, not the lock nor the bars. It's the weakest point of these cages. Luckily, there was a dragon with a saliva strong enough to do the job by melting it quickly."

He eyed at his mother, who had no idea of what he had to say. It was quite the wholesome scene, if you ask.

"Mom… There was a Stormcutter," he said. The news immediately brightened the woman's face.

"Cloudjumper?!" She asked.

"Yeah!" Her son confirmed.

Valka smiled widely for a moment, but for another moment, she turned it into a frown, though eventually she just shook her head with a puzzled look. "I don't know if I'm supposed to be happy or not, knowing my dragon has been captured. I can't be happy for that, can I?"

Everyone proceeded to laugh at Valka's statement. So did I.

"Well, you can be happy for the fact that your dragon is okay, and has great companies as well," I added. "He was kept with Toothless and the um… the pregnant Light Fury, you said?" I turned to Hiccup, who nodded afterwards.

"Toothless?! And the Light Fury?" Astrid asked. "Pregnant, you said?"

I chuckled uneasily. "Yeah… it appeared so."

Everybody gave Hiccup a judging stare, as if he was responsible for what Toothless had done. It was quite the funny sight, seeing that Hiccup noticed it and gave them 'how am I responsible for that?' look. But I kept my giggles inside.

"Anywayyy… I took some of Cloudjumper's saliva and I'm planning to make a device for you all to cut through the metal with this thing as the fuel. We did bring some of the old blacksmith equipment, right?" He asked. The Berkians didn't seem so sure about the answer, and it was noticeable.

"We did not?" Hiccup asked.

"Well, a few. You can see it inside the hull of our ship," Valka answered. "Hopefully it will do."

A sigh escaped Hiccup's mouth. "Very well. One last thing… um…" he fixed his sitting position. I could tell he was about to tell the most absurd news of all.

"Some of you may not believe this but… bear with me, and trust me, we are not crazy," Hiccup warned. It only drew more curiosity from the audience, judging from the fact that they moved closer to us.

"On our way back, obviously, we used the elevator back to descend to this level. However, since we never really took care of the elevator for years, the elevator broke and we fell down into the bottom of the elevator chamber," Hiccup explained. The moment he mentioned about us falling down made some listeners gasp. "Or at least, we _thought_ we had fallen into the bottom of the elevator chamber. Apparently, after the elevator and the machinery collapsed, the impact made a hole on the floor of the chamber. We, on our way down, fell _into_ the hole, and landed in an entire room…" Hiccup paused, "Safely! Thanks to Elsa and her magic."

We turned to Elsa, who was leaning against a rock alone in the corner while listening to Hiccup's story. She nodded as in 'you're welcome'.

"In the room, we discovered this," Hiccup pulled out a rock from his pocket. The rock was a random one picked from the very room in discussion, chosen as a representative of what he was about to tell. "This is a bit of the frozen lava we have discovered."

"Lava?..." Tuffnut asked. "Like the one a volcano spits?"

"Uh huh," Hiccup nodded. "We landed in a giant room, filled with nothing but frozen lava. Underneath, we heard magma activity. Yes, what I'm saying is… New Berk is one giant volcano, ladies and gentlemen."

Fishleg came over to examine the very rock Hiccup possessed. In his face horror screamed. "This is… frozen lava. Are you saying that New Berk can blow up anytime?"

"I don't think so. I think it will take a large force to really awaken the volcano," Hiccup replied.

Everybody murmured to each other, conveying worry to one another. Hiccup, on the other hand, didn't seem to show any sign of worry whatsoever, as if he was never scared of this very newly found fact.

"But this changes nothing. We stick to the plan. That is all."

Hiccup hopped off the rock we were sat on, turning to me. "I'm going to begin making the device. What cha goin' to do?"

"Uhh… I was thinking I could train more today. I'll help you out later when I'm done," I replied.

He smiled. "Sounds good."

* * *

I trained for hours, from noon to sunset. At least, I thought the sun was setting. The lighting inside the cave was minimum to begin with, making it harder to tell what time it really was. Only a small amount of sunlight made it through the harsh waterfall from afar.

Ever since I grabbed my Arendellian shield from my compartment, I really had to change my combat style. Aggressive style was a big no-go for me, since I had to take the weight of my shield into account. It was a _heavy_ object, but it was so for a purpose, a purpose that's been proven useful. To shield me from attacks, of course.

I managed to block more attack, which of course would give me windows to counter the attack. Heck, this shield blocked a full swing of Astrid's axe, for Pete's sake. That was a moment of a heart attack, I must say. Astrid really didn't hold back.

Overall, my close combat skills were sharpening. And my opponents confirmed that.

Though, hearing that the Therondians slayed nearly every Viking there was did send a chill up my spine. Vikings are already really good in close combat, to begin with. I couldn't imagine Therondia. The reason we won against the Therondians when we arrived was because we outnumbered them.

Having changed my attire since the old one was stained with my sweats, I made my way to the Viking ship. The Therondian we kept as a hostage was asleep, so I ignored him. Valka mentioned that the workshop was located inside the ship's hull. It took me a while to realize that there was a hatch on the floor that led to the hull itself, since I was so used to having no hatch.

I lifted the hatch and made my way down the set of stairs underneath it. Inside, it was musky and smokey. It took me a while to really scan the environment thoroughly and clearly.

"Hiccup?" I called.

"Oh hey! Over here!"

I turned around and saw the man himself, a candle lit next to him. He was stood next to a table of his 'workshop', which consisted of a stone to forge steel, the table, and a bucket of water. That was it.

"This is the workshop?" I asked, approaching him.

He sighed. "It is what it is…"

I laid my chin on his shoulder, hugging the Viking from behind. "Seems… minimalistic."

"Hey, you've been doing more battle cries," Hiccup smirked, slightly turning to me.

"Mental game. Ever heard of it?" I smirked back.

"Heh, yeah. I'd say your eyes are doing a better mental game than your battle cries," he looked into my eyes. In return, I glared, in a playful manner, of course.

"Yeah, I wouldn't survive three minutes with that," Hiccup sarcastically added, proceeding to continue forging this piece of tubular looking thing on the forging table. I chuckled at the joke, finding what he was working on interesting afterwards.

"Did you have any help from anybody?" I asked.

"Tuffnut… wasn't much of a help, I'm afraid," he replied. I snorted unintentionally, since his behavior could really turn 'helpful'.

"Hahah… Anybody else?"

"Nope. Just me, and the hammer of Thor," he gestured to his hammer before giving the tube a swing.

"YOUCH!"

The Viking pulled his right hand and fanned it. That's when I realized he just swung his hammer onto his fingers.

"Oh shit—you're okay?" I tried to reach for his hand, but he hid it away between his legs.

"Mmmfft—barely? Faen i _HELVETE—"_

Hiccup just swore in his own tongue, a tongue that I had zero knowledge in. My mind began to think of a solution for this, and the very first one to come was the best one!

"I know! Gimme a minute, will ya?" I spoke. I dashed my way back to the deck and off of the ship. I looked around to find my sister and there she was, sitting by the bonfire with some Vikings and performing a show with her magic. As always.

"Elsa!" I called, rushing over to her side.

She looked at me with slight concern. "What? What?"

"A snowball, please," I requested.

Not just Elsa, but everyone else raised their brows at my request.

"What for?" Tuffnut asked. "It's not winter yet."

Elsa inevitably snorted at Tuffnut's statement. "Pfft… what for?"

"Uhh… Hiccup hit his own hand with his hammer. Hence, the snowball," I explained.

Her eyes rounded right away. "Oh, that must've hurt. Here."

With a dance of her hands, Elsa summoned a snowball. A pretty large one. I had to carry it with both hands in order not to drop it.

"Thanks!" I dashed my way back to the Viking ship. I had a hard time climbing onboard since both of my hands had to hold the snowball. I descended down the wooden stairs and found him still holding his dear hand.

"Here…" I spoke while approaching him.

"Ah… smart…" he complimented.

I gently placed the snowball on top of his right hand. However, even with my utmost gentle manner, the snowball crumbled into pieces, falling down onto the floor.

"Aw come on, Elsa! You had to summon a _bad_ snowball," I complained. Kneeling down on the floor, I gathered the snow with my hands.

"Ah ha ha… Oh Thor…" Hiccup chuckled, though pain was still sounding clearly in his chuckle. He knelt down and helped me out in the process. I placed the snow I gathered on top of his hand and made sure it stayed there by pressing it.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yeah…" He leaned in and kissed me by the hair. "Thank you."

The room temperature was hot, to begin with. And it turned hotter. For me, at the very least.

I smiled at him. "You're welcome. I distracted you real good, didn't I?"

"You certainly did, I'll give you that," he chuckled. "Oh no, now I can't protect myself from the swords and arrows of my enemies. Who will ever protect me from the mercilessness of my enemy? Oh deary me, for I am so doomed in this instance! If only a knight in a shining armor can help this helpless and poor soul!"

His dramatic flair earned my claps. It was exactly what a princess would say to a handsome knight in a shining armor.

I decided to join in. "Oh do not fear, _poor one!_ I am here, in my shining armor, to help you. Not with my sword, nor my shield, but with this."

I cleared a bit of snow off of his fingers and kissed them.

I looked up to him. It was a bit hard to make out, but I saw a tint of red on his cheeks. Hiccup blushing, that's new.

Before I could even blink, Hiccup pulled me into a kiss.

I welcomed it, and we proceeded to kiss each other passionately. We were pushing against each other, but his heavier weight made me lose grip of the floor and have his entire weight collapsed on mine own. I pulled his head to deepen our kiss even more. His lips, his hot breath, I want more.

"Ouch!"

We pulled away, Hiccup looking at his right hand in which he tried to support his own weight with it. Seeing so, he pulled me back up. We stared to each other until we chuckled simultaneously.

"What did we just do…" he asked.

"More like, what did _you_ just do, kind sir?" I mocked.

"Oh I'm sorry, am I not allowed to have my heart touched by the mere sight of my love giving me affection in the most wholesome way ever, a kiss on my hand?" Hiccup replied. I chuckled at his statement that had too much syllables in it, shaking my head afterwards. I really am dating this guy.

"I have set the camp, by the way," I stated.

"What camp?" He asked.

" _Our_ camp," I added.

Once again, the rare sight of Hiccup blushing appeared! "Oh, okay. Cool. Where did you, um, set it?"

"Next to Elsa's."

"And where is Elsa's camp again?" He asked.

"You'll see."

He shook his head, as if he knew that I had something under sleeve, which I did.

"Right… I gotta get back to work," he stood up, grabbing the hammer back. I followed his lead.

"I'll help!"

"Okay, let me teach you how to forge… Ah crap, we're already running out of fresh metal, though…" he complained while looking at a stash of metal, in which it had only a few.

"How many have you made?" I asked.

"Uhh… enough only for… six of you. Still need plenty more," he scratched his hair. "I guess I'll have to salvage from elsewhere. All right! Here's your hammer—"

He was cut when loud footsteps descended down the stairs from behind us. It was Fishleg, seemingly nearly running out of his breath.

"H-Hiccup! Shhh!" He warned. "There's a Therondian ship entering the waterfall!"

"Wait, what?"


	22. Chapter 22

**I think it's about time I use third person POV again. Not that I can't see this specific chapter happening in first person POV, but I just would like to have a go again in third person POV, since it's been too long since I used it. I will shift to different POV's later on.**

**Third person POV**

The couple ran out to the deck and looked behind to see what the fuss was all about. Upon seeing the giant silhouette of ship behind the waterfall, they immediately ducked behind the barrels to hide. Both Anna and Hiccup drew their weapons out to face their enemy in silence.

Hiccup turned around to Fishleg, "Fishleg! Tell the others to prepare their swords and arrows and hide behind anything. We are going to ambush them! Wait for my command." He emphasized on the word 'arrows' to convey just what he had in mind.

"Aye, Hiccup," Fishleg nodded. With that, he dashed to the others to spread the message.

"I think we're the one who's ambushed here, Hiccup," Anna suggested. "No offense. We're cornered here!"

The Viking took his lover's advice into account and pondered for a moment. As he pondered more, the bowsprit of the ship entered the waterfall, which was noticed by the two.

"Anna! Hiccup!"

Elsa came rushing to the two and ducked as well. "What do we do?" she half-whispered, eyeing at the incoming threat behind the waterfall.

Her appearance triggered an idea inside the chief's mind. "I have an idea. Elsa, listen close."

The ice queen nodded and leaned in to hear better. After listening to the plan, both sisters suggested the same idea but with different approach, which led the trio to argue even more. However, the clock was ticking. The sound of water crashing upon wooden deck was soon heard from the waterfall. The trio looked at the ship again, and half of its body had already gone through the waterfall!

The trio kept arguing to each other to really determine which approach would be better. Eventually, they reached to the point where the three started nodding.

"Okay, okay, once they have beached, wait how do we know if they've beached?" Elsa asked in a low volume.

"Hear! There are rocks on the bottom of this water!" Anna replied.

"Captain! I see two unrecognized boats! One is Berkian, that's for sure!"

The trio turned to the source of the call. They spotted a crewmate standing near the bowsprit and scanning the environment from there. That's when they noticed the entire Therondian ship was inside the cave. Even with the cave's tall ceiling, the ship's tall masts still scraped against it, causing small rocks to fall down.

"Be prepared! Grab your swords!" Another voice called. Soon, swords were drawn out. Its distinctive sound echoed in the cave.

The trio watched the ship getting closer and closer. The sheer size of the ship was not helping them in coping with the nerves of what danger they were facing. Hiccup had cold sweat running across his back, his hand was shaking as well. It was too noticeable by the queen of Arendelle, so she firmly grabbed her lover by the arm and gave a reassuring nod.

Soon, the Therondian ship's hull scraped against the rocks on the bottom of the water, a sign that the ship had beached. It was only a couple of meters away from their boats.

"Uhh… Oh! HEY! OVER HERE!"

The trio turned to see behind them and spotted the Therondian sergeant they had kept as hostage wiggling inside the tie of rope he was inside.

"Shit! Elsa, now!"

The ice queen came out of hiding. She walked to the other end of the boat. Inevitably, the Therondians noticed the sight of the walking ice queen. The ones holding their crossbows aimed for her, but with a wave of hand, Elsa summoned a giant ice pillar from the portside of the ship, hitting the ship with an incredible force that caused it to tilt to the right drastically. Everyone onboard lost their balance within an instance.

"WHOAAH!"

"WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?!"

The goal was to tilt the ship so drastically, it would throw the men onboard of it offboard. However, the force was not big enough as all of the men onboard were still onboard. Elsa was going to summon another ice pillar to tilt the ship even more, but a torrent of water shot out of the water from underneath the ship's hull, causing the ship to tilt. From the torrent of the water gracefully jumped out Nokk.

"Nokk!" Elsa called. "Good job!"

The water horse nodded and headed over to where Elsa was. From there, the two watched men falling into the water as their ship was taking water. There could not be a better moment to attack.

"Everyone! Fire your arrows!" Hiccup commanded, coming out of hiding. With that command, every Berkian emerged from their hiding, aiming their arrows onto their targets. Almost simultaneously, the Berkians let loose of their arrows.

Hiccup approached the railing of the boat to really determine whether the attack was effective or not. Anna followed his lead, watching the scene with both hatreds and nerves, unsure of which was bigger. She watched arrows piercing through the water seamlessly since the Berkians aimed the arrows upwards. That, of course, hit some of the targets, judging the tints of blood surfacing on the water, even though it was quite dark.

Despite watching a large number of arrows raining death on the Therondians, Hiccup had another idea out of the blue. He rushed his way back to the workshop. Anna, on the other hand, could only raise a brow at his sudden leave. Later, he returned with a circular object on his hand.

"This ought to do something," Hiccup smiled. The Viking aimed and threw the object into the area in which the Therondian men were drowning. Water took the object, and seconds later, an explosion followed.

_BOOM!_

The Berkians stopped raining their enemies with arrows afterwards. There was only the sound of the ship taking water, which stopped doing so since the water was shallow, only half of the ship was underwater. Everyone simply watched the water, which weirdly had not even a body floating nearby. However, a random one came afloat, followed with another one, and another one. However, the number didn't quite satisfy the chief of Berk. He counted only seven bodies.

"Elsa," Hiccup called. "Just how much men does it need to man a ship like this carry?"

"Uh… thirty? Minimum. So, expect… fifty?" Elsa guessed.

Every eye kept watching the dead bodies reaching the surface of the water, not realizing the fact that not-so-dead bodies had reached dry land from the other side of the beach. Fortunately, Mrs. Hoffman was there and alerted the others.

"THIS SIDE! More of 'em!" She warned. Right away, the ones near her charged at the men with their melee weapons.

Hiccup rushed over to the other side of the boat, seeing the sight of Therondians in their shining armor initiating a fight with Berkians. More and more appeared out of the water, very much in the same attire. They barely had a scratch!

"How could I forget?! Their thick armor!" Hiccup smacked his head, drawing his hatchets out afterwards. He glanced at the royal sisters, "Let's go, ladies. We're missing the action."

The trio jumped off the boat, but only to meet two men coming out of the water near where they landed. They drew their swords out and charged at the trio.

"Elsa, Anna! Join the others! I'll deal with these goons," He readied himself. Anna rejected the idea.

"No! You can't handle—"

"This is no time to argue! GO!" Hiccup barked. Hearing the sternness, Anna nodded and followed her sister to the more crowded side of the battlefield.

**Hiccup's POV**

Unlike the usual duels I've had, the Therondians didn't take their time to walk in circle while glaring. Instead, they charged to me, swinging their swords from above. I leaped backwards to avoid the incoming attack, and even had to cover myself with my hands from the flying rocks caused by the impact of the swords against the ground.

These men were buffer than my fishbone-like size, so every dodge and swing I had to perform had to be more powerful and agile. One man charged at me, his sword pointing right at me. using the crook of my hatchet, I directed the sword away from me once it was close enough, and directed the momentum of the wielder itself away from me. He collided against a big rock and took his moment to recover. That's the cue for the other man, as he leaped forward to me with same move; pointy bit aiming to my chest. I did the same maneuver to avoid it, but this time, the man continued swinging his sword at me. I blocked and blocked, until his sword was caught on the crook of my sword again. This was my cue to throw his weapon off of his grasp, but the man's muscles were too strong; my attempt to do so failed.

"Clever one…" He complimented in a deep voice.

With a pull, he threw my hatchet away from me into the water. I was now only wielding one hatchet.

My opponent took advantage of this and immediately swung his sword at me from the side. I _barely_ blocked that. Before I could even analyze what move he was going for next, a ram hit me from the side, sending me into the air and into the water.

I recovered myself quickly by standing up and clearing my vision from the water. That's when I realized that the other Therondian rammed me. The two laughed cockily at me.

"HYAHH!" One Therondian cried, once again leaping towards me. With a heavy swing, he swung his sword from above. I blocked the attack by holding both ends of my hatchet to really suppress the force. However, upon making contact, I lost my footing on the rocky floor. My entire weight collapsed, and my head was now underwater. I never had the chance to take a breath. His sword kept my head pinned down underwater, and soon, both of his foot on mine to prevent retaliation.

I was going to be killed either by suffocation or a slash of a sword upon my neck, but the odds of by suffocation seemed to be more likely. To make matter worse, my right hand lost grip on hatchet, making the handle bar press against my neck, as if being chocked by water was not enough. The Therondian clearly knew this and applied more force on his sword right away.

I tried breaking free with my right hand. Almost as if Odin pitied me and my current fate, my right hand sensed a familiar feeling on my right. It was my previous hatchet! I grabbed the weapon and immediately planted the blade on my opponent's neck. The attack broke his pressure on me, as he desperately tried to cover the cut with his fingers. His blood inevitably dropped on my face as I breached the surface to regain breath. After doing so, I deepened my blade into his neck and pulled it off recklessly.

I stood up again on my feet, noticing his other mate watching the possible death of his mate in horror.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

He ran towards me, his sword about to give a sweep from the side. Before he could even come closer, I aimed for the man's head and threw my hatchet. I could see him noticing me initiating my throw, so he ducked to avoid it. He didn't entirely miss, as the blade landed on his left shoulder instead. This stopped him in the middle of the track, so I took this opportunity to charge to him. When he was about to pull out the weapon out of his shoulder, I jumped into him, collapsing my entire weight onto his. My left hand immediately applied more pressure onto the hatchet.

"AGHHHH!" The man screamed in pain.

I was about to slit the throat of the man with my other hatchet, but he blocked me with his sword. He took a good grip on my head and smashed it with his own. The impact stunned me. I lost grip of both of my weapons. I couldn't really figure out what was going on for a few seconds. All I felt was the man's blade sweeping me off by the chest, throwing me away. Since I was still recollecting myself, my feet were never able to keep my balance right. I fell into the water again. I opened my eyes and saw the blurry sight of the man approaching me. Using his right foot, he kept me pinned down on the chest. I barely saw it, but he attempted to plant the tip of his sword on my face. I, again, _barely_ avoided it by tilting my head to the right. Seeing the failed attempt, the man began another one.

He swung his sword down again to me, or at least, I thought, he was.

Out of nowhere, he collapsed on top of me. Having myself freed from his grasp, I got rid of the body off of mine and breached the surface again to breathe. I noticed the cut on the back of his neck and the one who made the cut. Anna!

"You okay?" She knelt down and inspected me swiftly.

"I'm okay, I'm okay…" I said, panting heavily. My heart was racing more than ever.

"You _can_ handle it, huh?" Anna frowned. She was very much irritated. "Come, this is not over!"

**Anna's POV**

I took his hand and pulled him up. After retrieving his weapons back, we ran to the busier side of the beach. Everyone was involved, and I mean _everyone_. The Terrible Terrors, to which I never knew we even brought along, the Berkians, Elsa, even Nokk! He was doing his best in distracting the enemies by ramming them with torrents of water.

On the corner of my vision, I spotted Fishleg being pinned down by an opponent. His dear life was only supported by the mere shields between them. Seeing so, I built my momentum by charging at the Therondian and rammed the man with my shield. After I got him off of the Viking, I gave the man no break and swung my sword at him from above.

_CLANG!_

A force sent me several steps backward. I was not entirely sure what did so for a moment, but when I saw a slash mark on his shield, that's when I learned that he parried my attack, _while_ still regaining his composure.

The man stood back on his feet, about to come for Fishleg. However, the Viking already dashed away from the scene. It was a no brainer for him to come for me. He walked casually to me, and out of the blue, he picked up a sudden speed. I didn't have enough time to react as he rammed my shield with his. Since his posture was bigger than mine, I inevitably flinched backwards several steps, and at the very last one, I tripped.

The man was really not giving my plenty of time to really take my whole situation in. He took advantage of my current position and swung his sword at me. My shield blocked me, but its loud _clang_ was really killing. He swung again; another loud _clang_ followed. Countless more followed, as if he intentionally did this to simply intimidate me.

I needed to get out of this. Therefore, before he could land another attack, I rolled away to avoid it. It was pulled successfully as he swung the rocky floor instead. I took the window by planting the tip of the handle bar of my inferno blade on his side. With a press of a button, the blade came out, piercing his side through the gap of his armor, though not entirely. Flame ignited afterwards to add more agony.

"ARGHHH!"

I stood back on. I attempted to give the man another sweep with the tip, but his incredible reflex protected him as he parried it with his shield. I nearly lost grip of my inferno blade due to the immense impact.

"Fancy weapon…"

With gritted teeth, he slowly stood back on. This was my window! I was going to stop him from doing so but a flying bolt cut the skin open of my leg. Right away, I knelt down.

I hissed in pain, looking up the source of the shot. I spotted it, a man, reloading his crossbow. But he was quickly knocked out by Valka who hit him on the head from behind. Utter bad luck!

For my opponent, the table had turned. He lunged to me. I simply raised my shield to welcome his attack and braced, but nothing hit it. when I heard a _neigh_ , I took a peek from my shield only to see Nokk next to me and my opponent lying unconsciously on the rock to my right.

"Nokk!" I called. "Good boy!"

The water horse disintegrated into water again to fetch with the others on the other side of cave. Just when I thought I could catch my absent breath, three men charged to me with their swords up. This was no match for me, so I quickly turned around to run. However, I heard crashing noise behind me after doing so. I glanced behind me and saw the trio already on the ground, with a patch of ice on the floor just a meter away from them. It was Elsa's doing, who was in the middle of a fight with other men! Talk about multitasking.

Having the trio vulnerable, I walked, almost limping, forward to end these men with this opened window. Eret and Astrid joined me, each attempting to planting their blades into the spines, but the thick armor made it harder for them.

"Ah, screw it!" Eret stripped the man's armor with a reckless pull, exposing the less protective layer of armor under it. Eret took his chance and impaled his opponent on the back. He turned to the other Therondians to get on them before to me. "Run, Queen Anna!"

"If you mean to the other enemies, sure!" I walked my way to the other actions. Of course, it was not what he exactly meant, but who was he to tell me what to do in such crucial moment where everyone's participation was a must?

I looked for the selections of actions and stopped on one which seemed one sided; Hiccup, once again, facing a duo of Therondians. It was a no brainer for me.

**Elsa's POV**

After giving my sister a breathing room, I turned my attention again to my portion of enemies.

"She's a witch!"

"No, idiot! She's the Arendellian queen! What is she doing in here?"

I raised a brow at the chatter. "Perhaps you gentlemen want to sit down and talk through this?" I offered.

The quadruplet shook their heads. "Nah, I mean, might as well put an end to you, Your Majesty," one man with the most different armor replied. His statement drew my curiosity as to what he really meant with his statement. As I walked in circle with my hands ready to summon ice, I studied the armor of this very man. Soon, I spotted his rank on his chest, a lieutenant.

"Attack!" The man commanded, and the other three men charged to me. It appeared he was right; he was a lieutenant. Countering the men, I summoned a curved ice wall and pushed it against them. As the wall captured these three, some Vikings captured their vulnerable state and began fighting them.

However, I was so focused with these three, I forgot about the lieutenant, to which I only realized his whereabouts on the corner of my eye at the very last second. I leaped backward to avoid his massive battle axe that landed hard on the ground. With a hand, I sent a blast of ice to him. Almost seamlessly, he blocked it with his arm piece.

"My, my, you really shouldn't be here, My Queen," he taunted. "Hyah!"

He swept his axe upwards, to which I avoided by changing its course with a blast of ice. Just when I thought he needed at least a moment to prepare for another swing, he swung his axe from the side. This time, I summoned a roughly-made ice shield to block the attack. However, this was one heavy axe. The impact shattered the shield into pieces, and I was almost certain the bone of my arm as well. I was sent spinning.

After regaining myself, I looked up to my opponent who was approaching me with a face full of hatreds. I stomped the ground and ice spread across the ground and under his feet. However, his move to cope with my tactic made me gasp; he cleaved the ice with his axe, shattering it into pieces.

Gritting my teeth, I was about to send a blast of ice head-on, but some more men charged to me from other directions. It was too much for me, so I knelt on the ground and created a small dome of ice around me.

Soon, blades began to clash against the dome, attempting to break it open. Not one, not ten, hundreds of them. The clanging never stopped. Under pressure, I kept the ice as thick as possible by planting my hands onto the wall and flowing my energy through it.

_CRACK!_

"AFFT—"

I sensed a stinging pain on my right hand, and discovered the blade of an axe planted on it. The Lieutenant's axe. Blood began to flow from the cut caused by the blade, a critical indication for me to pull my hand off of it. However, as I was about to do so, the axe pulled out of the gap made by it, causing my wound to open even more.

"Agh…" I examined the wide cut on my hand and looked up to the gap on the dome. There I saw one of the thirsty for blood eyes of the Lieutenant. He lifted his axe up again, about to break the ice more. I tried patching the gap with my wounded hand, but no ice came out. I used my left one and ice came out, patching the gap. I patched the gap quickly enough to prevent the Lieutenant's axe from breaking in.

Once again, I thickened the wall of the dome, but only with my left hand. While doing so, I tested my right hand again by summoning an ice blast to the ground. The result was negative. My right hand couldn't summon ice!

Soon, a crack appeared on top of my dome. I pressed against the crack in attempt to patch it. However, I could feel it, the swords and axes banging against the dome. It was almost like every Therondian was onto me.

"H-Help!" I screamed.

I tried my best flowing energy to my dome to strengthen its defense, but whatever weapons the Therondians were using were eating my ice like it was nothing. With my left hand being the only functioning hand to cast magic, I was cornered.

_CRASH!_

The part of the dome in front of me crumbled down, revealing three Therondians and their heavy battle axes. On the middle was the Lieutenant himself, smirking dirtily. He pointed the blade of his axe to me confidently, but only to have a Terrible Terror grabbing his face. I used this opportunity to run away, but one man grabbed me by the foot. I met the ground instantly, and when in the process of getting back up with my hands, the pain of the right hand halted me. I desperately kicked the man in the face to break free, but he caught my kick and crawled up to me with a smile.

"Gotcha…"

I was about to summon ice with my working hand, but he had it quickly pinned down by stomping it. He lifted his axe upwards. I looked away and sealed my eyes afterwards

_CLANG!_

_Thud._

I opened my eyes and saw my own reflection on the blade of the axe. Next to me was the man himself, whom I thought was going to kill me but had died to a hatchet on his forehead. I had never seen so much bloodbath before, so I looked away from the sight.

I noticed Hiccup pulling out the hatchet from the corpse and walking past me. Other Berkians, Terrible Terrors, and Nokk followed his lead. His direction gave me an understanding of the current condition; we were winning! There was only the Lieutenant left, alone and possessing no weapon.

"Wait, Hiccup!" I called. "He's a lieutenant. He may know more than the sergeant."

Hearing so, he signaled the others to lower their weapons. However, a figure dashed to the Lieutenant from the crowd. Anna!

"HYAHH!"

"Anna, wait!" Hiccup called.

She rammed the man with her shield, which the man incredibly parried with his bare hand, throwing her shield to the side. However, there was an opening, and Anna used it. She forcefully planted her blade's handle to his chest, and not even a second later, the blade came out of it, impaling the man's heart.

The man collapsed on her, but Anna threw the body off of hers before it could bring her down as well.

She turned around to all of us, who were merely watching her with dropped jaws.

"Why did you do that?" Hiccup asked. It didn't take an expert to tell that he was disappointed.

* * *

Neither of us genuinely thought we could stand a chance against the Therondians. The chances of winning were small, if not, next to nonexistent, but we achieved victory. There were no casualties on our side, but of course, there were wounds to treat.

Here we were, patching my sister's cuts and bruises as she was patching mine in our cabin. We could patch ourselves outside, but the medicine was inside and we had no desire to make our lives harder by walking outside where there were corpses of our enemy. It was not the most pleasant sight in the world.

Anna was done with the cut on my hand. She finished it with a kiss on the bandage itself. "There. Don't forget to eat your apples."

I giggled slightly. "Thank you. Now let me do the one on your leg."

"All right."

I gently positioned her wounded leg on my lap. I pulled up the trouser to reveal the wound fully. In the process, Anna grunted in pain as the trouser made friction against the wound itself.

It was a rather severe one, but luckily it was not on her shin bone. It would've been worse.

"Right…" I applied alcohol on a piece of cloth. "This will sting… brace yourself."

She nodded. With that, I pressed the cloth on the wound. With gritting teeth, Anna quietly hissed in pain.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah…" she breathed. "Been through worse. _Recently_."

That inevitably reminded me of her very last kill, which was very much against our wishes.

"Anna… we need to talk about—"

I was cut as the door of our cabin opened abruptly. Hiccup came in, looking irritated. He had patches on his left shoulder, his cheek, and his neck.

"Anna, don't you walk away from me again like that!" He warned. "Why did you kill him?!"

"You saw what he did! He almost killed my sister!" She barked back.

"Oh I know what he did!" he scratched his hair. "But Elsa said he was a lieutenant! He might know something that the sergeant does not!"

"I bet all my money that he will be much harder to crack through. He's a lieutenant, for fuck's sake! He would've told us nothing, if not, false information!" She argued.

Hiccup turned around, hiding his face with his hands. "Oh my goodness… you don't know that!" He replied, his voice sounding muffled.

 _"_ _I do_. _"_

I looked to her. She looked very serious and confident with what she had said. "Anna… you do _not_ know that."

She turned to me. "Elsa, you too?"

_CRACK!_

We turned to the male, who apparently had thrown his hatchet to the wall in front of him. He turned around, looking as stern as ever. "What… did I tell you… about letting your emotion control you?"

"Asks the one who just threw a hatchet into the wall _emotionally_ ," Anna replied nonchalantly.

"I AM SERIOUS, ANNA!"

The statement silenced her well. It was small, but there was a hint of fear on her face.

"… I've been taught how to kill, Hiccup! This was just another one on the pile!" Anna defended.

"WE'VE BEEN TEACHING YOU HOW TO SURVIVE!" Hiccup replied harshly. Both of us were taken aback by his volume, and so was he. In an instance, he collected himself and cooled down with a deep sigh.

"Anna… He was a potential intel… we could've learned about…" he shrugged. "The man whom the Therondians used to control the dragon! The black dust! Their shipment details! More! But he's now dead! Had you not killed him brutally, we could've learned something! For Thor's sake, we have Nokk who is _literally_ a master in interrogating! You still wanna place a bet on whether or not the lieutenant would've broken?!"

The hint of fear and guilt was becoming more and more visible on my sister. She could only look down to the floor in the entire time. Hiccup walked over to her and knelt down to meet her eyes.

"Anna, I beg you…" he placed two fingers on her chest, specifically the area in which her heart resided. "Never let this consume you _again_. You will not survive out there if this controls your actions."

Anna remained silent.

"Temper it with this," he placed two fingers on her right temple. "And I guarantee you, even without me, or Elsa, you will survive."

She gasped slightly, tears forming on her blue eyes. "P-Please don't leave me…"

"We won't," Hiccup and I replied in unison. We shared a glance afterwards.

The Viking sighed, cupping his lover's cheek once before standing up. "Patch yourself up… Dinner's ready within an hour… or two. I dunno."

He walked and left the cabin.


	23. Chapter 23

**Anna's POV**

There was a distinctive feeling when Hiccup shut the door, leaving the two of us alone. A feeling that I last felt when Elsa was still keeping her power as a secret. It really did feel like so, although he was just walking away to probably check on the others, not to leave me for eternity.

Not even being told, Elsa continued her work on my wound again. Her expression screamed pity, but I could tell there was a hint of disappointment, too.

"…Did I mess up real bad?" I asked.

"…You did," my sister replied.

A sigh escaped my mouth. "You know… it's not like you don't get mad to your enemies—"

"Anna," Elsa cut me, "Listen to your sister well. When I saw you dashing towards the Lieutenant, I didn't see my sister, I saw an entirely different person. That was _not_ the Anna I know. The Anna I know would not do something like this. Yes, my life was at stake, but I had others backing me up, right? A Terrible Terror _literally_ saved my life at one point, that's how good our teamwork was back then."

I raised a brow. "A Terrible Terror?"

She shrugged, smiling slightly. "I don't know if you noticed, but I was cornered, so I entrapped myself in a dome of ice. Some men broke through, including the Lieutenant himself, but a Terrible Terror caused some havoc by biting the man on the face, giving me a chance to run away."

The story made me cringe a little. "Oh god… Must've been the experience to have one of those little guys bite your face."

"Yeah. But you get the point. Others had my back, too! Valka, Tuffnut, Eret, Hiccup. And of course…" She lifted her wounded hand, appearing to try to summon her magic, but nothing appeared. She frowned at the sight. She tried with her other hand and it worked; a flurry of ice materialized out of thin air.

"I have my power to protect me, as well," She smiled proudly.

"What's wrong with your other hand?" I asked suspiciously.

"Eh?" Nerves filled her expression right away. "Well, a battle axe cut it?"

"I know it was cut. But, why couldn't you summon ice out of it?" I asked again.

Only before a sigh did she confess while applying a bandage on my wound. "It's um… I don't know, it's something new for me. Apparently, the wound disables me from summoning ice from it… I've never experienced something like this before."

"Huh?" I gently took her hand. "That's funny… Well you and your power could barely defend your dear life, evidently," I continued.

"Anna, I could just freeze everybody by sending ice to every direction, but you wouldn't want that, would you? I could hit some of our ally too in the process, hence, my careful approach in using my power in situations like this," she argued back.

She did have a point. I could merely nod down slowly in acknowledgement.

"There."

With one last tape, Elsa finished patching my wound. I placed my legs off of hers after so, looking down to the floor.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I guess I need to… control my temperature more."

"You do," she firmly grabbed my shoulder. "Now you better apologize to Hiccup, too."

Now that she had mentioned it, I was feeling more nervous with myself. I genuinely never stumbled upon a really angry Hiccup ever before. He never even seemed angry during her stay in Arendelle because of the fact of his homeland being raided by outsiders. And the very moment I faced an angry Hiccup, he threw a hatchet to the wall. I guess I really did reach the patient guy's limit.

"Don't worry, he won't throw any weapon to you," Elsa added. She caught me looking at the hatchet planted onto the wall ahead of us.

"Well, I guess…" I deeply sighed. "All right. I'll go."

"I'll accompany you," she smiled slightly. "Come on."

With that, we left the cabin. Immediately, we were greeted by a grim view. Every Viking was clearing out the mess our previous battle we just had. The dead bodies were carried to life boats I assume they took from the Therondian ship and were piled on each other. When I looked to the bonfire on the other side of the cave, I noticed Hiccup and his mother chatting about.

I took a deep breath and took my baby steps to the guy I was owing an apology. I hopped off the boat and walked my way to him, but it didn't take long for me to stop in the middle of the track. His body language as he was talking to his mother screamed… disbelief and irritation, a clear sign for me that he was still pissed. Seeing so, I took steps backwards, but only to hit my sister in the process.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"M-Maybe the timing is not right, maybe I should let him cool down first," I excused.

"He will accept your apology, Anna. Just be honest. Let's not postpone this," Elsa replied.

"Elsa, please…" I said. "Maybe… I can… make it up for him, by doing something. Something helpful," I suggested. "That ought to make him feel better about me."

She crossed her arms. "What do you have in mind?"

What did I have in mind? "Uh… I can…"

"Help the others clear the bodies?" She suggested.

I cringed at the suggestion. "Anything but that."

I looked around to see if there was anything that could be mended, but nothing seemed as so. I kept looking around and stopped at the Therondian ship that was still laying in the water. The sight of the ship gave me an idea.

"Let's salvage the ship! See if there's anything useful in there!" I pointed to the ship.

My sister put her hands on her hips. "Not a bad idea."

"Good! Could you, perhaps, place the ship back to its original position?" I requested.

"Sure."

We approached the ship and stopped at the closest point we could get to from the beach. With confidence, Elsa began to walk on the water, ice materializing on it as she took her steps. I followed her lead until she stopped in the middle of the track. With her okay hand, she summoned a giant pillar of ice from the water. Upon making contact with the hull of the ship that was underwater, the ship slowly tilted upwards. It kept doing so until the ship finally stood upright.

Of course, our activity attracted some attention. I saw most Vikings were looking at us with suspicion, including Hiccup, who was by the beach.

"What are you two up to?" He asked from a distance.

"We wanna salvage the ship, see if there's anything useful on it," I smiled, giving that 'ok' finger with my hand.

Initially, he gave a weird look. But he nodded in approval afterwards. "Okay. Do try to search for blacksmith equipment, okay?" He requested.

"Will do!" I replied.

With that, Hiccup left to mind his own business. When I turned around to the ship, I discovered Elsa had already constructed a set of stairs just for us to reach the deck. "Huh, neat."

"You are very much welcome," she attempted to crack her fingers but only ended up hurting herself. "Ouch!"

"Careful now, you don't want to open the cut even more," I reminded.

"Okay, okay."

Grabbing the railings firmly, I climbed the stairs and hopped onboard the ship of our enemy. I scanned the deck thoroughly as I walked around it aimlessly. Elsa merely followed my lead aimlessly, too.

"See anything interesting?" I asked.

She stopped by a mast and inspected it by circling around it. "Nothing."

"We're not gonna find anything around here—oh!"

There was a hatch by the central sail mast that was open, leading to a set of stairs to reach the interior of the ship's hull. This immediately drew my attention first.

"Let's go down there," I pointed to the hatch. Elsa nodded in agreement.

We took our steps down into the lower deck. It was nearly pitch black, so Elsa had to summon a crystal of ice to brighten the area. Once illuminated, we discovered that the interior of the room was filled with supplies in the form of food and weapons stored in crates that were opened. There were barrels filled with gun powder and flammables fumes, crates filled with rifles and crossbows, compartments with swords and axes, you name it. However, the one that attracted me the most was the food crates.

I approached a crate filled with apples. "I guess we will be okay for the next few days," I said, grabbing an apple and taking a bite of it.

"Yeah. I can totally—oh look!"

Elsa pointed to whatever was behind the crates of food. She moved and moved some crates to clear the path and discovered a box of blacksmith equipment, all in one box! How convenient.

"I'm not an expert in blacksmith, but you do need a hammer, a saw, some nails…" she began naming the objects inside the box itself until she stopped at ones that neither of us could really name.

"Uh huh," I replied.

"Tell you what?" She lifted the box slowly. "Oof, this is heavy. I'll place this in the workshop, you continue searching for more goodies, okay?" She suggested. I didn't really buy the idea right away.

"You sure? That seems so heavy, and with your hand…" I pointed to the box. Before I could even continue, with a wave of hand, Elsa placed a crystal on the ceiling of the room to illuminate the area. She lifted the box again and walked her way to the stairs.

"I'll be fineee. Try to search for something in the cabin once you're done with this area!"

She made her way up the stairs until she was out of sight. I sighed and looked around again. I checked every corner and found nothing new apart from weaponry and food. For a ship that randomly entered the waterfall, it was sure very much stocked in supplies. I could only wonder why.

There were small cubicles with barred doors filled with the same crates of supplies. But other than that, there was nothing else.I looked for another possible way that could lead to the room below the floor I was in, either a hatch or set of ladders, anything. But I found nothing. Seeing so, I made my way back to the main deck. Right away, my eyes were locked to the door on the upper poop deck that could only lead to a cabin.

I made my way to the door and opened it slowly. The interior was not as dark as the previous lower deck I was in, mostly due to the large windows on the other end of the room, which gave a view to the rear of the ship.

Since the ship was tilted by our surprise attack, aka Elsa's magic, everything was not so in order. There was a desk completely upside down, books and papers scattered everywhere, bottles of wine on the floor, it was a mess. However, despite the mess, everything was luxurious, as I inspected further. It must be where the Lieutenant would spend most of his time.

As I circled around the room, my eyes caught a hint of map on the under the flipped the desk. Slowly, I lifted the desk with a grunt and placed the map on top of it.

"What is this?..."

The shape of the land drawn on the map was not something I was familiar with. I made sure I got the best lighting from the window and had a closer look.

_CLUNK!_

"Who are you?"

I sensed something pressing against the back of my neck. I've never felt such sensation, but I knew that it was a barrel of a gun. Slowly, I raised my hands.

"Answer me!" The voice sounded feminine.

"Will my answer even benefit you in any way? You're the only one left!" I answered sarcastically.

"Huh?" The woman gasped slightly. I could feel her no longer pressing the tip of her gun's barrel against my neck, so I used this opportunity to turn around to face the woman. Of course, the movement was sudden and it took her by surprise, but it allowed me to really see who she was. A woman, black short wavy hair, wearing a distinctive Therondian royalty outfit, though it was the casual version. She was most likely in her twenties. Her dark green eyes screamed fierceness.

"What are you doing in here?" She cocked her gun with a thumb.

"Mommy?"

The voice of the toddler emitted from the bed. Under the blanket, something moved about. From under it, a little boy revealed himself.

"You brought your son along?!" I asked in disbelief.

"That is NONE of your business! Less asking, more answering!" She now pressed the tip on my forehead. The action made my poor heart skip a beat.

"Okay, okay! Geez! I'm Anna! Happy?" I answered, deliberately not mentioning my title for safe precautionary. "I'm just looking around for information, that's all!"

"Where's my husband?" She asked, desperation sounding in her tone.

"How am I supposed to know who your husband is?" I answered.

"Lieutenant Xander, wore a royal Therondian armor, wielded a battle axe," she explained. There was no worse description of a man she would like to know, as it was the very man whom I last killed in cold-blood. I just made a wife become a widow, and a child lose a father. There was no greater guilt.

"ANSWER ME!"

Her bark made me realize that I was inside my own mind for a period of time she found irritating. Of course, I was not going to reveal that I was the killer of his husband.

"H-He died in the battle!" I replied.

My response earned a deep gasp from her. In the background, I saw her son doing the same before he hid under his blanket. Ever so slowly, she lowered her gun, breaking down. I merely watched the lady from where I was.

"HARGHH!"

For briefly, that is.

She rose and hit my cheek with the handle of her gun. I almost collapsed due to the contact, but I kept my footing steady. When she was about to aim her weapon to me again, I grabbed my inferno blade and released the blade during mid-swing, hitting the gun. With that move, I unarmed the lady, as the gun was thrown to the other side of the room.

I took steps forward, earning more bravery. "You don't want this… your son is here…"

She took steps backward. "You monster! Y-You killed my husband!"

As if she really meant that _I_ was the killer, more guilt built inside me. "He was trying to kill my people!" I replied sternly, inflaming my blade in fire. The sight caught her by surprise.

"Fucking bitch…" she complimented. Without my awareness, the lady grabbed a model sword on the wall and swung it against mine, very much attempting to unarm me. But I kept my grip hard. She gave me another swing and upon contacting, she used her weight to push against mine. I fought back with the equal force, gazing into her eyes that were filled with hatreds.

Almost simultaneously, we let go of each other with a push. This time, I swung my blade as hard as I could. The lady blocked it by grabbing each end of her sword horizontally. Upon making contact again, I kicked her by the belly to at least inflict real pain on my opponent.

"Oof—"

The kick stunned her, giving me a window to attack. I swung my blade from above, but only to hit the floor. Her amazing reflex had apparently made her evade by taking a step backward. Seeing so, I swung from the side again after closing the gap between us. She ducked. Slightly irritated, I leaped forward with my blade pointing right into her. With a mere jump, she evaded the incoming attack to the right. Because of my momentum, the blade's tip accidentally dug the wooden wall. I tried pulling it out, but the lady pulled me by the back and threw me to the floor recklessly. For a slender looking woman, she really had powerful muscles!

My head knocked against the floor hard. The second I opened my eyes, I saw the lady standing on top of me, about to land her sword onto my very face. Right at the very last millisecond, I tilted my neck to avoid the sword. Fortunately, the sword landed on the floor instead, and the same fate welcomed her; it got stuck. She tried so hard to pull it out, but it didn't seem to budge. During the process, she kept me left hand still by stepping on it. I elbowed her foot in hope that she would lose balance of herself, but it didn't budge. I received a kick on the face instead, stunning me for a few moments.

As I was recovering myself, a familiar voice sounded.

"Drop it."

After regaining my vision, I saw who it was. Hiccup!

I stood back on my feet as he dragged the lady away from me by planting the blade of his hatchet on her neck. Once I was within a safe distance from her, the Viking recklessly pushed her against the desk and began tying her hands on her back.

"Mommy!"

I looked behind to see the boy no longer under the blanket. He had tears building up on his big eyes. "Don't hurt mommy!"

"You brought your son along?!" He asked.

"Again, NONE of your business!" She barked back. Still retaliating, the lady tried her best to see her son. "It's gonna be alright, Gideon! It's gonna be fine!"

Of course, it was a vain attempt. The boy still looked worried. "B-But!"

"What's going on in here—Jesus!"

I looked to the entrance of the cabin and saw Elsa there, along with some Vikings. Their jaws dropped upon seeing the scene.

"You monsters…" The lady cursed.

* * *

We had the woman tied against the mast we used to tie the Therondian Sergeant. Although the scene did attract attention of the Vikings, they preferred enjoying their dinner and calling it a day after the sudden and tiring battle. But not for Hiccup, as he and I were to accompany the mysterious lady for the night.

"Your son is in safe hands. We will let go of you and your son once this is over," Hiccup explained as he casually sat on a barrel.

"Mind defining what 'this' is?" She asked.

"You don't get to know that," I replied. "Your name, please."

She clicked her tongue, sighing in defeat. "Cassandra of Therondia."

"You're the wife of the Lieutenant, I assume?" Hiccup asked.

"I am…" She replied.

"Okay. Just how much do you know about the…" Hiccup grabbed his chin, pondering for a moment. "The man who controls the dragons?"

"Drago Bludvist?" She asked.

The name rang a bell for me. It was a name I had definitely heard of.

"Drago… Bludvist?" Stating the name again had apparently really reminded me of the man. "Hiccup!" I turned to him. He clearly had already remembered the man earlier than me.

"D-Drago…" He spoke softly, his voice stuttering. He palmed his fists altogether. "I thought he…"

Silence filled the air.

"Anymore question?" Cassandra asked sternly.

Hiccup looked up to the lady. "Why does Therondia have a big interest in putting dragons in their market? Isn't human trafficking already enough?"

"Human what?" Cassandra raised a brow. "What are you talking about?"

"Human trafficking, for Odin's sake. Clear your ears, woman!" Hiccup barked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, man!" She replied in the same harsh manner.

Right when Hiccup was about to reply her, I stepped in front of the Viking to calm him down. "Hiccup, calm down. She's telling the truth."

"How do you know?" He asked.

"Elsa counseled me on seeking the truth. She shared her experience with people to me. This, I know well enough. The lady is telling the truth," I spoke the last sentence with full confidence to convince him.

He sighed in defeat. "All right."

I stepped away, turning to Cassandra. "Explain to us. Why did your ship enter the waterfall?"

"…We were searching for the missing eight men we have sent to map the underground maze. They have been missing for a full week. We thought we could find the tail of the maze from somewhere by circling the island. Xander spotted the waterfall and commanded his men to steer the ship into it. I was turned unconscious when something hit the hull of the ship, tilting the ship drastically. I hit myself on the head when it occurred," Cassandra explained.

"Lucky call," Hiccup commented. "Very well. That's it for now. I will ask more later."

"That's it?" I asked, turning to him. The brief interrogation was too brief for my liking.

"That's it. I still have more work to do, Anna. And I'm already worn out," he excused, taking his hatchets away with him.

"My son, Gideon! Take me to him!" Cassandra suddenly pleaded.

"We will take you to his cell in the morning. In the meantime, spend the night without your son," Hiccup replied, not even turning to her while walking to the workshop under the deck. I understood that he was tired, both mentally and physically, but I couldn't help but to feel that Cassandra didn't deserve it; to spend a night in which her son was absent.

I turned to her and forced a smile to assure her. "Your son is safe."

"How can he be safe without his mother? Please, take me to him, now! I won't retaliate! I have nothing to lose but him!" Cassandra begged. It hurt me to see a mother like this, despite the fact that she was a Therondian. Seeing that I was the only one around, I decided to do the job.

I checked for the Sergeant who was tied as well. He's asleep. Good. Slowly, I loosened the knot on the mast for a brief moment, long enough for Cassandra to get out of it. Once she was free, I quickly tightened the knot again and took out my blade, pointing the tip to her afterwards.

"Thank you. I am a woman of my word," she calmly replied. She walked to the railing of the boat and hopped over it onto the ice Elsa made previously to reach the ship. I followed her lead from behind.

"How come there's ice around here? And the stairs made out of ice?" She pointed to the stairs ahead of us.

"Would you believe magic?" I asked.

She turned around to me, sticking her bottom lip out. "I would. You won't believe how much magic I have witnessed in my life."

Hate to say that I was interested in hearing more, but she was my hostage. "Right. Keep walking."

Once we reached the stairs, we climbed it carefully, knowing it was made out of ice. I kept my eyes onto her back, readying myself for any action she might pull to escape. However, until we reached our destination, which was the lower deck, she pulled nothing on me.

Almost like her motherly instinct telling her where her son was, Cassandra turned to the cubicle in which her son was kept in.

"Gideon!" She called, grabbing the bars once reaching the door. "Are you okay?"

"Mom! I'm okay! Where have you been? Did the Vikings hurt you?" The little boy asked, innocence sounding in his tone.

"They didn't," she knelt down to meet his level. "Oh my boy…"

Cassandra hugged her son through the bars. While she was doing so, I unlocked the lock of the cubicle.

"Cassandra, inside," I instructed. Obediently, she opened the door and entered the cubicle. She sat on a crate and her son jumped right onto her lap right away. Seeing so, I locked the cubicle again, saving the key to it afterwards. I watched the mother hugging her son fully without bars between for a brief moment. Inevitably, the same guilty feeling returned.

"There's um… a pillow, inside, that I grabbed from the cabin," I said. Hearing so, Cassandra looked around and found the object from behind, hidden behind the crate she was sat on.

"Ah, thank you," she replied. It was hard to determine, but I think that was a smile that I saw on her lips.

"Good night," I walked away.

"Anna!" Cassandra called. I stopped on my track and turned to her.

"Thank you," she placed a hand on her chest.

"Thank you, too," her son, Gideon, added.

I couldn't stand the gratefulness of the Therondians, so I rushed my way up to the deck. It only added more guilt onto the already piling pile of guilt. My heart began to ache. I just killed a father of a son, and a husband of a wife. Not to mention the ones I had killed before I killed Lieutenant Xander! Perhaps it was only a matter of time until the universe makes me meet the wives and the kids of the men I had taken their lives from.

As I headed back to the boat, I heard clanging from it, indicating that Hiccup was working. After climbing the boat again, I descended down to the workshop. There he was, continuing his postponed work.

"Hiccup…" I called, wrapping my arms around him from behind. "Aren't you tired?"

He sighed deeply. "I am. Very. You should go to sleep, Anna."

"…"

Hiccup stopped forging the piece of metal in front of him because of my silence. He turned around to face me. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I… would like to. I really would like to sleep, but… I can't…"

He wrapped his arms around me, caressing my back in a soothing manner. "Shh… there…"

Tears began to form on my eyes, and they streamed down my cheeks as I closed my eyes when burying my face in his shoulder. "I-I just took the life o-of a father, Hiccup… T-The little boy will never see his father anymore!..."

Soon, even my own feet couldn't support my own weight. I knelt down on the floor. Hiccup followed my movement to keep me inside his arms while tightening them. "Hiccup, w-what do I do?"

He answered nothing. He remained hugging me as tight as he could.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hiccup's POV**

Almost like I was programmed to do it regardless of where I am, my mind woke me up. I opened my eyes to a dark environment, resembling nothing close to a morning but I just knew that it was already morning. Just when I was about to get up, I sensed something in my arms, or someone. It was Anna, sleeping peacefully.

Last night was a terrible experience. The queen cried her tears out until there was no more left, forcing me to postpone my work with the devices. The guilt never left the queen, no matter how hard I tried to soothe her. I tried all the words there are in the dictionary but Anna remained feeling guilty of her actions. Eventually, I reached the point where I stopped saying anything to her and used my last resort, physical contact.

We used a sack of fruits as a cushion and scooched in to one another. It took its time, but the queen finally showed a sign of calming down. She kept on sobbing on my shoulder until she fell asleep. When she did, as gently as possible, I let go of her and continued my work. As much as an important person she is in my life, I had other things to take care of. I returned to her around two hours later after finishing my work. Two hours was a considerably fast time, since the sisters did bring me better equipment to work with. And here I am, waking up early, earlier than her.

I gave her hair a gentle stroke before hearing a loud grumble from her stomach. Poor girl probably never had a proper dinner. I have to get her something to eat. Maybe there's some food from last night. I gently stood up without disturbing her slumber. I opened the hatch above us, allowing a tiny bit of light to illuminate the hull in which we were in. Climbing my way up, I saw no activity whatsoever, but it was very much already morning, seeing from the sunlight behind the waterfall on the far entrance of the cave. Perhaps last night's battle really worn us out, hence, the loud snores.

I hopped off the boat and walked along the lines of tents the other guys have set up. My target was the cauldron Mrs. Hoffman cooked in. When I spotted the object, I noticed a small amount of charcoals still emitting heat from underneath it. I looked over the lip of the cauldron and jackpot; there is still warm stew in it. I grabbed a bowl from a pile of it nearby and poured some stew into it.

I rushed my way back to the boat, but stopped mid track when I noticed an absence of someone in particular on the mast of the boat. There was only the Sergeant. Cassandra?

I circled around the mast and found no trace of her, nor any sign of escape. A tiny bit of panic started to build inside me. I descended down to the hull and saw Anna already awake.

"Hey, Anna!" I called with a loud whisper.

"... Hey..." She replied weakly due to her sleepiness.

"Where's Cassandra?" I asked right away.

"Oh. Um, I moved her to her ship where her son is. Forgive me, I just can't..." she didn't finish her sentence as she merely looked down. I wanted to disagree with her decision, but seeing the state she's in, I let it slip by.

I sighed. "All right..." I knelt down in front of her. Within an instance, she picked up the scent of the stew. A grumble emitted from her stomach again, which she sheepishly tried to suppress by pressing her stomach.

"Is that for me?" She asked.

"Yes. Here. You didn't have any dinner, did ya?" I asked, handing over the bowl.

"An apple... that's about it. Thank you," she accepted the bowl and started eating the stew. I sat down criss-cross applesauce, merely watching the poor lady eating.

"You just woke up?" I asked.

She cleaned off some stain on her lips. "Right after I sensed nothingness within my arms," she giggled.

I rolled my eyes away. "Right."

"Is everybody else up yet?" She asked.

"Nope. We're the only ones," I answered.

" _BURP—"_

My eyes widened at the very queenly attitude of hers. "My god."

Inevitably, her cheeks became red afterwards. That's when I spotted the already empty bowl. I never even noticed that she was eating that fast! "You already finished it?"

"Yeah... I mean, it is Mrs. Hoffman's cooking," she excused.

"Do you want another bowl?" I grabbed her bowl but she gently pulled it away.

"I'll grab another one later. I want to help you continue with your work! You know how we always get stomachache when doing manual labor after a big meal," she explained as she rose on her feet.

"I've finished everything," I said. Anna gave me that 'wait what' look.

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Oh, let me show you this," I went over to the forging table and grabbed the object I meant. Her inferno blade. I handed it over to her.

She inspected it thoroughly. "You did something to it or something?"

"Retract the blade out," I instructed.

With a press of a button, the blade retracted out from the handle. It took her several seconds to figure out what I did to it. "You sharpened the edges?"

"Mhm. I think it's about time you use the entire thing, not just the tip," I replied.

For some reasons, she snorted to my response. I could only wonder why.

"Well..." she sighed, turning on the flame of the blade for a brief moment, "Thank you. It will certainly help me out. But um..." she clicked her tongue. "Hiccup, I don't know if I can do this," she said.

To be completely frank, I didn't see this coming from her at all. The looks on her posture screamed tiredness; her frown, her dropped shoulders, her slightly arched back. I knew that it was hard for her to take in, but to give up abruptly at a point we're so close was not something I expected from a person like Anna.

I made her sit down again on the previous sack of fruit. "What do you want to do?"

"I... I don't know," she blankly stared at the weapon she possessed.

I pondered for a moment. "Do you remember my teaching about how to sail on the sea?"

She looked up to me curiously. "I... remember most of it, yeah. Why?"

"Go back to Arendelle with Elsa and Nokk. I will catch you back in Arendelle once this is all done. If what the sergeant said is true, then your kingdom is in danger," I suggested.

From the looks of it, I don't think Anna took my suggestion in nicely. "What?"

"Return to Arendelle," I repeated. "With your sister and Nokk."

She frowned upon my statement. "No, I don't want to do that. I am not quitting this."

I pressed the button on her blade to retract it and kept it close to her chest. "Then close your heart to it," I said sternly. "The Lieutenant could have killed some of our people. It could've been my mother, or Eret, or..." I paused. "Elsa."

She took in a small gasp.

"Or yourself. Who knows?" I shrugged. "The point is, you are not allowed to feel for your enemy, Anna. I'm sorry, but there is simply no other way if you want to make it out of this," I explained blatantly while holding her hands firmly. We connected a gaze for a moment. I could still see a hint of uncertainty in her eyes.

"... I can only try," Anna said, firming her grip on my hands, and also finally showing a small smile. It was a relieving sight.

I returned the smile. "Good," I pulled her into a hug, in which she returned. I stole a kiss on her hair in our hug. I sensed her doing the same, but on my shoulder. Moments later, I let go of her, but she didn't do the same to me. She seemed so preoccupied with the physical gesture that she didn't know that I've let go of her. Only after I cleared my throat did she finally release me.

"Oh, check out my masterpiece," I said as I grabbed one out of the devices that I've made throughout the night. It was in the form of a mere tube with a grey metallic finish. Its small size fitted in my palm perfectly. On one end, there's a button to ignite the flame from the other end. However, its simplicity was something Anna seemed to be questioning, judging from her looks that screamed 'is that it?'

She took the object and examined it. "Neat."

"Press the button and hold it," I instructed. She was about to do so, but her finger was on the other end of the tube, so I gently removed it before she could harm herself. "And make sure you do not have your hand on the other end," I instructed again.

She smiled cheekily to me. "Okay."

Anna pressed the button, igniting a small blue flame, no longer than the tube in which it was ignited from. Anna looked at the fire in awe.

"Meet the... torcher! Yes, I just came up with the name seconds ago. Let's do a demonstration, uhh..." I looked around for anything made of metal that could be burned down for the sake of this demonstration. My eyes stopped at the most perfect object there was, Anna's bowl. It was made out of metal, and I'm sure Mrs. Hoffman wouldn't mind having one of her bowls cut in half. For science.

I took the bowl. "Cut this bowl in half!" I grabbed the bowl with two hands.

"You sure? Can't we find something else?" She asked as she looked around.

"Nah, I'm sure it's okay. Come on, give it a go," I said in full excitement. Still looking unsure, Anna aimed the fire to the bottom and moved upwards slowly. As if it was nothing, the metal melted down.

"Woah!" Anna spoke.

Gradually, she moved the fire upwards, cutting the bowl in half. Granted, this was a mere bowl, but it would be enough for our later job.

"Well, I guess I gotta grab a new bowl later," she chuckled slightly, turning off the fire on the torcher. "Cloudjumper... is that the name of the dragon?"

"Yeah. The one and only," I grabbed more of the torchers. "I'll wake the others up. It's time they know about this and... the other bit," I said, referring to our latest discovery about our enemy. Anna, on the other hand, was not entirely sure of what I meant.

"What are you referring to?" She asked.

I pouted. "Drago."

She breathed out an 'ah'. "Oh yeah... Does this change anything?"

I processed her question for a moment. "I don't think so. Well, look at the bright side! I get to get rid of him twice later."

Anna gave me a chuckle before she crossed her arms, pondering of whatever she had in mind. "Hiccup... how sure are you that we will achieve victory?"

It was a hard question. I took my time to really answer it. But before I could even come up with anything, Anna added more, "Yeah, we are sharpened when it comes to our combat skills. But, our number... Hiccup, we do not stand a chance."

"Well... we have the dragons on our side," I said.

"What if they only bow down to Drago?" Anna asked

* * *

"What if they only bow down to Drago?" Tuffnut asked. For a person like him, it was hard to believe that he actually came up with such question. And what were the odds that he asked the exact same question Anna did?

At the moment, I am briefing my people as they're enjoying their lunch. It took some time to gather them, knowing that they are Vikings, but I eventually managed it. I have explained the torchers to them, which pleased them, in a way, knowing that I was _that_ well planned in this mission. The demonstration had also pleased them well, though Tuffnut almost cut his own helmet in half because of his recklessness. Sure, it was laughable, but his helmet was placed _on_ his head, and we didn't want to see any bloodbath during mealtime.

Now, Drago Bludvist is our main topic. When they heard the name, they reached for their cups of water because of disbelief and shock, along with choking, obviously. It was a reasonable reaction, but their lack optimism was not something I found reasonable.

"Yeah, Hiccup... I mean, he once did assemble an army of dragons," Astrid said.

"Astrid?" I raised a brow. "Well, you didn't come along when we scouted the ground above. They are still the dragons we once knew! We get rid of Drago, and the dragons will be on our side, I bet that!" I said confidently.

Eret stood up. "I suppose if Drago is in the hands of Therondia, you'd expect he'd be fully protected by Therondia, am I right?" He asked. "Forgive me, Hiccup, but it will not be as easy as it sounds. Getting to Drago will involve penetrating through Therondia themselves, I bet that. And perhaps... the dragons themselves, too, if they are under the command of Drago."

I really wanted to counter the argument, but Eret is right.

"Hiccup, I genuinely had confidence. But now, knowing Drago is a part of our enemy, I'm not so sure anymore," Fishleg added.

I watched everyone in hesitance.

"And if, let's say, we come out of this successfully, what's next?" Astrid asked.

It was the very first time the question occurred in my mind. I never thought of what's next. Though, to be fair, I was even still abstract with my own plan to free the dragons. But it's not something that I could really call as an excuse.

I looked up to my listeners. "We will rebuild anew."

"With fifteen people? We're all there is, Hiccup. We're the only Berkians left!" Astrid argued.

I frowned to her. "My answer remains the same. Now let me ask you one question, and one question only; are you guys with me?" I asked. Neither of them answered. They merely looked at their food, as if they never even heard me.

"Then it begs the question, are you guys really Berkians?" I asked. They still remained silent, only occasionally glancing up to me.

"Because the Berkians I know are rock-headed, stubborn, and brave. Not the _cowardice_ kind like this," I emphasized. "Or should I say, are you even Vikings?"

I waited for an answer. While doing so, I noticed Elsa making her way to my side. I looked to her curiously. She merely gave me a reassuring nod.

"If I may just add something..." She cleared her throat. "All of you should have _faith_ in him. The guy defeated Drago previously, doesn't that give you any boost of confidence? And he did it because of you guys! Let's not turn him into a one-man army when we start freeing the dragons, okay?"

Everyone looked up to her. I could tell that she just earned their attention fully.

"I know it has not been easy for us. I mean, look at us, covered in patches all over ourselves and we haven't even started yet. And I will admit it, too, I have not been the most helpful ally. It's certainly outside of my expectations as well to see just how well and persistent Therondians can be in combat. But we, again, _we_ ," she emphasized, "Just defeated the entire crew of that ship!" She pointed to the massive Therondian ship inside the cave. Everyone looked at the ship and nodded down in agreement slowly.

"So, I'd say, we have the upper hand. Our whereabouts are still unknown and we know the island better than they do," Elsa convinced. Her confidence really aroused the others' as I began to see smiles on the faces of my people, acknowledging the ice queen.

"And to ensure victory more, again," she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Have _faith_ in your chief. Raise your drinks to him," Elsa instructed. One by one, everybody raised their cups and rose on their feet. This was a pleasant sight to see. Elsa and I shared a glance briefly with a mutual smile on our lips.

"To Hiccup! And victory!" Elsa exclaimed.

"TO HICCUP AND VICTORY! YEAH!" Everyone repeated, giving an applause afterwards.

"Thank you. Ah, also, you are very much welcome in my land, Arendelle, as for what 'happens' next," Elsa said. Our listeners 'wohoo'ed at the offer. "Hiccup, anything else?"

"Oh, uh, no, that will be all," I replied.

"Will there be any scouting for today?" She asked.

"Oh yeah. The usual. Two guys will scout outside of the waterfall on a boat. We can grab one from the Therondian ship here. Eret, Astrid, you up?" I asked the two and they nodded.

"Good. And as for the ground above..." I was about to continue when I spotted Anna, who had just returned from her tent with a different attire.

"I will cover it," I gave Elsa a small smile. "That is all, folks. You may continue your lunch."

With that, they continued their meal. I sat down with Elsa and laid my back against the rock behind me.

"Hey, thanks for that," I said while smiling. A chuckle escaped my throat. "Had you not stepped in, I could've lost 'em," I sheepishly admitted.

"I know how hard it can be to really earn your people's loyalty. Even leaders make mistakes sometimes, you can't expect them to be perfect all the time. However, the best ones take full responsibility over their mistakes. You, kind sir, are no exception," she explained. Her statement touched me deep inside.

"... Thank you," I placed a hand on my chest. "Really, thank you—"

"WOAH! I'M ON FIRE!"

We turned to the source of the panicking and discovered Tuffnut had the horns of his helmet on fire. In his hand was the torcher, clearly the cause of the very comedy going on. I was about to rush over to the Viking but Anna was there to throw the helmet into the water, immediately putting out the fire.

"Phew, thanks! That could've gone bad," Tuffnut said as he turned on the torcher nonchalantly. Seeing so, Anna took the device away and turned off the fire.

"It's about to. I'll take this for now," Anna said as she approached us, irritation slightly sounding in her tone.

"Hey, did I miss something?" Anna asked, joining us.

"Well, you just saw the highlight," Elsa chuckled. "Geez, just what is Tuffnut?"

"The best Viking there is," I answered sarcastically. "Anna, have you eaten yet?"

"Yeah, I have. Hey, I think it's about time we check on Cassandra and Gideon. We still can learn a lot more from her," Anna suggested.

"Who's Gideon?" Elsa asked.

"The child," I answered.

"Ah, okay. Should I summon Nokk?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah, sure," I nodded, standing up on my feet but only to have Anna halt me by the arm.

"But... not in front of her son," she reminded as she eyed to the two of us. I sensed a hint of soft spot Anna had for the lady and her son. Though they are Therondians, I tolerated it.

"Okay," I nodded.

With that settled, the three of us made our way to the ship. Elsa's magic was still freezing the water nearby the ship, allowing us to approach it. Once onboard, Elsa looked over the railing of the ship to the water.

"What is she doing?" I asked curiously to her sister.

"You'll see," Anna said.

_"Ah ohh~ oh oh~!"_

The sudden chant was sudden, indeed. Her beautiful voice echoed through the cave. What followed afterwards was the answer to my question. Nokk jumped out of the water onto the deck. It was once again gracefully done. Elsa, technically being the closest thing to an 'owner' of the water horse, gave him affection in the form of pets.

"Oh, okay. Last time, she only whistled," I shrugged. "I guess this works, too. Too bad I can't sing."

Anna nudged my side. "Prove it. Sing me something to my sleep tonight."

I snorted. "Make me," I challenged her. "All right, could you two grab her while I make a quick setup for the 'interview' here..." I dragged a random nearby barrel as the sisters nodded to my request and descended down to the deck below. While doing so, I noticed Nokk giving me a judging look, though that was the only look the mythical spirit could make. Still, it grew uncomfortable, knowing what he's capable of.

Once I placed the barrels in their positions, three facing one, with the lone one for our fellow Therondian, I sat on the middle of the three. While waiting, I returned the stare Nokk was doing to me in the whole time.

"Hey," I greeted.

Of course, the spirit didn't reply.

"Ever seen a dragon before? You know, other than the Terrible Terror?" I asked randomly.

The horse shook his head as in 'no'. That instantly shocked me.

"What the f—"

I cut myself when I saw Cassandra walking past me nonchalantly. She sat down on the barrel right in front me. The sisters sat down on my right and left in the same manner.

Cassandra turned to the water horse next to her. "Cool horse."

"You're saying that as if you've encountered it before," Elsa commented.

"I have not," she smirked. "It's because I've seen more magnificent creatures before. This is no surprise."

That drew my interest. "Talk about magnificent creatures... Since you've seen more magnificent ones, are you talking about the ones Therondia have already captured? Are dragons not the only creatures they sell in their market?"

Cassandra raised her brow, giving a look that suggested that she could barely believe of what I was asking. "No. This was before I became a citizen of Therondia."

I looked at Nokk, who gave no reaction to the answer. Elsa nodded down in confirmation. Cassandra was telling the truth. So far.

"Explain became?" Anna asked.

"That is a private matter that I would not like to share," Cassandra replied. I looked up to Nokk to see for a reaction, but the horse gave none.

I leaned closer to Elsa's ear. _"I thought Nokk could detect lies,"_ I whispered.

 _"_ _Lies_ _, Hiccup. If she would not like to share the information, he will not react. A lie must be spoken first to be considered as one,"_ Elsa whispered back.

It makes sense, irritatingly. "Very well. Cassandra, do explain about the human trafficking. Why this market, in particular?"

"I have _zero_ idea of what you're on about," she replied. I found her lack of knowledge irritating.

"Just how long have you been a part of the kingdom?" I asked, sarcasm voicing my tone.

"As old as my kid, four years old," she replied.

"Then you should know something about the kingdom's economy! Your husband is a lieutenant, for Thor's sake!" I said.

"I really know nothing! Honest!" She gritted her teeth, finding me irritating as well. I looked up to Nokk, who, again, gave no reaction whatsoever. Just how clueless is this woman?

"All right, fine," I sighed. "But I suppose you know about the dragon trafficking market? The plan to capture and sell the dragons to a selection of kingdoms that requested these creatures?"

"... That, I know," she nodded. "Yes, we are going to sell them overseas. The whole Therondia are planning to move here. We are going to build anew on this very island. Selling the dragons will allow us to build our new kingdom."

Nokk gave no reaction again, indicating that this was the truth. I shared glances to the Arendellian sisters in suspicion.

"The whole Therondia?" Elsa asked.

"The _whole_ Therondia," Cassandra repeated.

"Huh, as if the money from human trafficking was not enough to fund the building process," I mocked. Once again, she could not believe my statement, judging from her expression that screamed confusion.

"Lady Cassandra of Therondia, let me explain the whole human trafficking thingy. I seriously have zero idea how you have not uncovered the kingdom's possible number one monetary income source, since even a _mere_ crewmate knows about this! Therondia have been selling people with titles or unique features to those who demand them. _I_ was about to be sold in their kingdom, for being the chief of Berk!" I explained. After naming my identity, Cassandra turned surprised.

"Wait, you're the chief of Berk? Hiccup Horrendous Haddock?" She asked.

"Yes, I am," I answered.

"I... thought you were dead," she spoke.

"No, I'm not. Back to the questions. Cassandra, how are you _this_ clueless when it comes to your own kingdom?" I asked.

She looked down to the floor. "I'm afraid it will involve telling private matters, in which I am not interested in sharing."

I hopped off my barrel, pointing my hatchet to my hostage. "I don't care."

Despite my sternness, Cassandra didn't flinch an inch at all. She didn't give any look that was close to fear or obedience. However, just when I thought I needed to threaten her more, a sigh escaped her mouth.

"Fine."

Hearing so, I hopped back on to my barrel. "Go on."

"... My boy, Gideon, has been my world ever since he was born. There has been nothing else that mattered more than him. He is my everything. If anything could explain the reason behind my so-called 'cluelessness' about Therondia and its economic resources, it's this," she explained. Almost simultaneously, the sisters and I looked up to Nokk, who gave no reaction to her statement.

"Why do you always look up to the horse after I say something?" Cassandra asked out of the blue, appearing to notice the rhythm.

"Oh. Nokk here can detect lies. If you lie about something, he will drag you into the water and drown you, unless you state the truth fast enough," Elsa casually explained.

Cassandra gulped uneasily. That was the very first sign of fear I saw from her. "Oh my god."

"Yeah, that's almost the same reaction I did when I first discovered it, too," I patted my knees. "So, you want to see your kid? Do not lie to us," I threatened. Right away, Cassandra palmed her fists, most likely having the urge to give me a punch. But she held herself.

"Hiccup," Anna called, grabbing my shoulder. "Let's not do... any of that. The threatening bit and all."

I held her hand. "Well, that will entirely depend on herself. There's no stopping for Nokk."

She stared at me for a second before sighing. "All right... just, be less threatening. I don't like it."

"All right, all right," I said softly. "Anyway," I looked back to Cassandra. "Didn't you, like, ever talk to your husband? You know, perhaps once he comes home from the castle, you ask him how his day has been and all," I asked.

"Xander and I were... distant, for _reasons_ ," she emphasized, conveying the message that she didn't want to explain what the 'reasons' were. "Hence... I only cried for the fact that Gideon lost his father, not for me losing my husband. The boy still loves his father, though Xander didn't return the same thing to him... as much as I hate to admit that. This is as private this interrogation ever gonna get!"

She crossed her arms, looking up to Nokk. "At least the horse knows where the line is."

Despite still wanting to know more, I felt content with her answer. "Very well."

"Cassandra," Anna suddenly called. "Forgive me for assuming ever so boldly, but I take it that... you're a person who is _least_ Therondian a Therondian can ever get in my eyes. Would you agree to their kingdom's method in invading Berk to take away their rightful land?"

"What do you mean by invading?" Cassandra asked.

"Well, invading; the act of invation. Occupy, get rid of the natives, or in other occasions, enslave them, prioritize profit," Elsa answered.

"I thought this island was an empty piece of land," she casually answered. We gasped in disbelief.

"Did you even see the mess up there? The wreckage, the bodies, and all?" I asked.

"I... was never taken up there," Cassandra replied. "I've been inside the ship ever since I arrived here, which was only a week ago."

"Why didn't you come up there?" Anna asked.

"Xander wouldn't let me. Said they were still clearing off the dragons. After they're done, they will take me and my son up there," she explained.

"So you're saying that..." Elsa said. "The dragons are the real inhabitants of the island?"

"Aren't they?" She asked.

The three of us shook our heads. I could not believe this woman at all. To make it even worse, Nokk was not giving any reaction whatsoever, meaning that Cassandra was telling nothing but the truth!

"Then why did you think that I was dead?" I asked.

"I was told by Xander that a tribe called Berk used to occupy this land years ago. But then, dragons raided the island and no Berkians made it out alive," she explained.

"Talk about being deceived..." I muttered, looking up to her afterwards. Only before a sigh did I start my explanation. "Cassandra, I'll clear it out for you. Your husband, Lieutenant Xander, has been lying to you. First of all, no, Berk was still very much occupied by _Berkians_ before Therondia arrived. Not dragons. It was months ago. One night, Therondia arrived under our awareness. Granted, as a terrible chief, I should've seen them coming. I should've set a defense mechanism that would notice us such arrival."

Remembering back the memory halted me mid-track. I could feel it on my chest, an old feeling that I felt way when I arrived in Arendelle.

"Go on," Cassandra said. I realized that I paused myself for too long.

"So... Therondia began their raid. They climbed onto the island by shooting harpoons to the top. They were very hard to remove since they immediately caught fire upon making contact. Soon, Therondian soldiers climbed their way up and began their slaughter on _my_ people," my tone began to sound emotional as I progressed on. "I was left alive only because they wanted to sell me. But..."

I soon realized something. "Huh... why am I mentioning the details..." I spoke under my breath.

"How did you free yourself?" Cassandra asked curiously.

"Doesn't matter. The point is, first, Berk was raided by Therondia in cold blood. Second, the Therondia somehow learnt about the Hidden World. _That's_ where the dragons come from, it's nine days away from here," I explained. "Gee, why are we the ones doing the explanation? We're supposed to be learning something from you!"

"I... never knew..." Cassandra said, stuttering slightly. "Chief Hiccup, I really don't know."

I didn't want to, but I had to. I looked up to Nokk, who was still giving no sign or anything. Her expression was genuine, she really meant every word.

"Well..." I waved an arm. "Now you do."

"How many of you were there?" She asked.

"Nearly a thousand. Dunno. There are only fifteen of us now," I muttered, looking down while resting my chin on my hand.

"And the fifteen of you are trying to claim back this rightful island of yours?" She asked.

"Our priority is the dragons," I answered. "We are going to free them. We are going to be victorious or just die trying."

"Why are they so important again?"

I frowned at the question, not wanting to answer it. "That's enough from us. You may return to your son."

"Actually, can we just stay in the cabin? If you still have doubts, you may lock us from outside. Just leave a crate of food and that will be more than enough," Cassandra requested. I exchanged glances to Anna and Elsa to hear from their sides.

"Please," Cassandra said. "There's barely any room for us to move about."

I looked to the sisters again, and they nodded. "Okay. I will get the crate. Elsa, take her to the cabin. Anna, take the son," I commanded. The two nodded to my command and got on with it. Anna followed my lead to the lower deck and went over to the cubicle in which little Gideon was kept inside of. I grabbed a random food crate and waited for Anna to finish unlocking the door. Once unlocked, she knelt down to meet his height.

"Come on, little fella..." Anna persuaded the boy. He seemed skeptical with her.

"Where's mama?" Gideon asked.

"I'm taking you to her, no worries," she answered. As if by magic, Anna earned his trust already as he allowed her to pick him up. The boy circled his arms around her neck to hold on.

"You're good with toddlers," I commented.

"Mmmm... Maybe," she responded. I merely chuckled at her as I made my way up the stairs. "And Hiccup?"

I stopped myself. "Yeah?"

"... Thank you for being patient with her," she smiled gratefully.

I stared at her for a moment. "Eh... I've faced worse," I said as I continued making my way up the wooden stairs.

Once back on the deck, I went over to the cabin where Elsa and Cassandra were. Once Gideon spotted his mother, he dashed to her and crashed himself into her arms, as if he's been separated from her for an eternity.

"Well, Elsa, Anna, Hiccup, thank you," Cassandra slightly bowed down.

"I don't remember my sister introducing herself?" Anna asked, grabbing her chin.

"She did. Literally seconds ago," she smirked. "Though your names weirdly sound familiar to me... Never mind. Here," she handed me a key. "As promised. Lock me from outside. If you want to."

"Okay. We will see you again later, I guess," I waved a hand as in goodbye while walking backwards to the door. Once the three of us were outside, I locked the door.

"Just to be safe..." Elsa grabbed the handle of the door and froze it.

I deeply sighed. It caught the attention of the sisters right away. "What are the odds that we ended up with the least informative Therondian there is?" I shook my head, still not believing my luck.

"At least she seems kind," Elsa crossed her arms, smiling slightly. "And Nokk didn't sense any lie at all. For a Therondian, she is innocent, as much as these two words do not together well, evidently."

"I agree," Anna added. "She's just a mother who's trying to protect her son, that's all."

"Still, that doesn't mean we should let our guards down," I warned. "I think I'll go scout the ground above for now. Anna, wanna come?"

She smiled at the offer. "Of course."

"This doesn't smell like a date at all, Hiccup," Elsa said, playfully nudging me by the arm.

"What do you mean? We are going to _scout_ the ground, that's all," I pretended, but obviously giving it away that I had something else in mind as I glanced to the smiling Anna.

"Something tells me that you two are going to _scout_ each other," she walked away with a smirk.

"Elsa!" Anna called in an embarrassed tone.

* * *

Indeed, I planned it to be a date/scouting mission.

The three of us were inside the elevator chamber to reach the surface of the island. Of course, the elevator was no longer there, hence, I brought Elsa to construct a new one with her own magic. After carefully instructing her here and there to design the simple elevator, we were finally done. Luckily, our brains were in sync as we were designing the whole mechanism. Kudos to her and her knowledge in designing.

"Looks... amazing, as always, Elsa," Anna complimented while looking at the brand-new elevator towering to the top of the island. It was designed to mimic the old design, but with improvements here and there to enhance safety and traveling speed.

"You sure this won't melt with your... perma, what?" I asked, walking onto the platform with Anna.

"Permafrost. No, it will not. Worry not," She nodded, giving the two of us a reassuring smile.

"All right," I grabbed the lever next to me which would take the whole elevator up. "I'll see you later."

"Be careful you two," she warned. With that, I pulled the lever, and the elevator started ascending. The only difference was the speed. Sure, it was only a touch faster, but it was better than nothing.

We sat down on the platform while waiting, looking up to the speck of light emitting.

"Just how tall is this island, Hiccup?" Anna asked out of curiosity.

"Perhaps... around four thousand meters from the water surface. I remember it took us days to really figure out the real number," I said. I mentioned the number as if it was nothing, but to Anna, it was something jaw-dropping.

"Four thousand meter?" Anna asked.

**Now, there are two versions as to how tall it really is. I looked up on the fandom wiki, and an article said that it was 15 km tall, making it taller than our tallest guy, Mount Everest. But another source says that it is around 5-7 km tall. I went with my own version.**

"Yeah," I chuckled. "Pretty crazy, right?"

"Well... the mere sight of the island already took my breath away. But the number, goodness me," she chuckled along. "And knowing that... there's an active volcanic activity underneath all of it."

I looked away, shrugging. "I don't know what to do with that. I guess I'll just have to live with it."

I laid my back against the railing of the platform. Anna scooched in and laid herself against me. However, in the process, she struggled a bit, since she had a shield on her back.

"This shield is making life harder," she said as she adjusted her position on me. Yes, we did bring our weapons. We were fully equipped because Thor knows what we might face later on.

"It just might save your life, though," I said, pinching her cheek a little. "Who knows? Maybe we will encounter Drago himself when we're up there. And you'll be thankful to the fact that you brought your shield along."

"Is Drago any good in combat?" She asked.

I stuck my bottom lip out. "The man literally only has one functioning arm. The other is a metal prosthetic, which only serves to balance his weight. So, hypothetically speaking, you have the... upper hand."

She rolled her eyes away at the joke. "You didn't."

I blew a raspberry on her head childishly. "I think I did, Anna."

"Stop it," she giggled, pushing me by the cheek playfully with a hand.

For what I thought was a brief moment, we shut our eyes as we waited for the ice elevator to bring us up. Later, I looked up and noticed that we were already nearing the top of the island. As Anna named it, the manhole, was already in reach.

"Anna, we're here," I gently shook her, awaking her.

"Oh, okay."

We rose on our feet and pushed the manhole. Being a person shorter than me, I gave Anna a boost as she reached for the ground. After she was through the vines and leaves covering the manhole, I followed her. Once I set foot on the ground, I breathed in the fresh air I long desired.

After scanning 360 degrees carefully, I concluded that the surrounding was clear from any Therondian. If it were not for nature giving us a very convenient towering chamber that reached the top and bottom of the island, we would have to search for other methods to reach the top of the island. By any stretch of imagination, I couldn't think of any. Flying? We had no dragons to fly on. Climbing? No chance of that. Using the elevator Therondia had built for themselves outside of the island? That is suicide mission.

I closed the manhole and made sure it's hidden away under the vines.

"Well, where do we go, Hiccup?" Anna asked.

"Hmm... yesterday, we went to the village. The village is actually only a sixth of the entirety of the island, give or take. So technically, we haven't seen the whole island. What better place to see the whole island from the Vantage Point?" I smiled, gesturing her to follow my lead.

"Sounds great. Do you have a name for the place?" She asked, following me through the tall vines.

"For what?" I turned to her.

"The Vantage Point. Heard from Eret that you named this area the New Raven Point. What's the name for the place we're heading to?" Anna explained.

"Oh. Well, Vantage Point," I shrugged. She did the same gesture after 'oh'-ing to the answer.

"How far away is it?" She asked.

"Hmm... Two hours of walking and climbing, max?"

I could hear her low groan. "All right. Let's go."

We progressed on with the journey. With the utmost awareness, we kept our profiles low all the time through the woods. Soon, I began to hear just I wanted to hear. The sound of water. It didn't take long as well until something bright and blue came into view through the lines of tress ahead of us.

"Do you see that?" I pointed forward.

She placed a hand above her eyes to try to look better. "Uhh... I can't quite make it out, what is it?"

I stopped her from walking. "Focus on your hearing. Do you _hear_ that?" I asked again.

The sounds emitted from the woods varied from the sound of birds and bugs. However, it could be heard if listened very carefully; the sound of flowing water.

"Oh! A river?" She asked.

"Yes. Let's go," I took her hand and rushed to the end of the woods ahead of us. Once we reached the clearing, we took our times to adjust to the harsh sunlight above us, since we were so used to the dim lighting the thick woods provided us with. Within seconds, it all became crystal clear.

"Woah..." Anna's jaw dropped at the view.

The color palette of the view magnificent consisted of three main colors. The light blue of the wide river (which is so wide, people would mistake it as a lake), the brown of the towering cliffs on the other end of river, and the green of the trees on top of these cliffs. Four colors, if you count the white of the clouds above us.

**Weird narration, I know. But bear with me (:**

"Hiccup, this is beautiful!" She clapped her hands and covered her mouth with them. "Oh my god!"

"This is the Basin Point. You can kinda see how we come up with our naming, I suppose?" I smirked to her, walking to the edge of the river. I knelt down and gave my face a quick wash with the water. It's still the refreshing experience as ever.

"Uh huh, a word, sometimes has an association with the terrain of the place, and then 'point' after that," she knelt down next to me and did the same thing to her face. "Whooh! Cold!"

When I scanned the view ahead of us, I noticed an absence of man-made works, indicating that Therondia haven't done anything to this place. "It's a great relief to see that Therondia have barely touched this part of the island," I pulled her close by the shoulder and pointed to a towering rock on the other side of the river. "That's Vantage Point."

"That super tall piece of rock?" She asked. "Is there even a way to the top?"

"There's a path we made a long time ago. I think there's a possibility that Therondia have not found it yet, if we're lucky. Now, to reach the place," I pointed to the end of the river on our far right. "We circle the river..." Anna followed my finger as I skimmed it to the left slowly. "Hop over the path of rocks over that small waterfall," I skimmed my finger to the left more, "We enter a bit of woods. Then, there will be a small clearing, and we should be at the foot of the cliff by then."

She sighed deeply. "A _very_ long walk, then."

"Correct," I stood up and helped her up afterwards. "Let's not let our guards down, though."

* * *

"What's the wildlife of this island, Hiccup?" Anna asked as she tried to scale over a tall ledge.

I pulled her by the arm, bringing her over the tall ledge. "Ufft... Hmm, boars, birds, bugs... the usual. What about the woods in Arendelle?"

"Wolves, bears, reindeer. If lucky, wild horses," she mentioned.

"Oh. I was expecting you were on the list," I smirked. The queen didn't welcome the joke nicely, judging from the frown. She pinched me hard by the hand. I whined in pain right away.

"Ouch ouch!"

"Wild enough for you, Sir Haddock?"

* * *

"Seriously? Twenty-five cliffs?"

I nodded. "Yeah! But Anna, watch your step!" I warned to the queen who was crossing the waterfall on slippery rocks. Once she was nearing me, she took a leap towards me. Fortunately, I saw it coming and braced for the impact. With open arms, I caught her.

"Wooh! Thrilling!" She said, dusting off the dust on my right shoulder.

"You're enjoying this a bit too much," I rolled my eyes away.

"And Vantage Point is the highest cliff of all?" She asked, proceeding with the walk once again.

"Nope. That would be Valkyrie Point, located on the other side of the island. But there's no way to scale it other than flying," I explained. "Thus, the name, Valkyrie Point."

"What's a Valkyrie again?"

* * *

"Well, you will have to taste the chocolate we have—"

Anna cut herself when she saw a movement from a large bush in front of her. "What's that?!"

The rattling inside the bush quickened and a wild growling emitted from it, and it apparently grew scary for her since she hid behind me. But it didn't stop there; as she climbed on my back, tangling her legs on my arms to keep herself balanced and pointing her sword to the bush.

As for me, I knew just how boars sounded like. So, by the time three baby boars revealed themselves from the bush, I was not scared at all.

"Stay calm, it can probably smell fear," I sarcastically said.

"Oh, just tiny piglets, haha," she hopped off my back. "Hello there..."

Out of the blue, the mother of the piglets revealed herself from the bush. Its size was something we were taken by surprise. And I have a bad experience with Berkian boars.

"Anna, this one _can_ smell fear, run!" I took her hand and ran away.

...

"This walk is really telling me the fact that I'm getting OLD! I feel like my age won't be that long!" Anna whined around.

"Oh stop being so dramatic," I replied. "Besides, we're here!"

"Oh?"

Once again, we reached to a clearing from the woods. The wall of the Vantage Point rock was just ahead of us, very much within reach. I saw the wooden poles placed horizontally from the bottom to the top of the rock, acting as a ladder that bridged the foot of the rock and the peak.

"We climb from here," I pointed to the poles. "And my guess was right, apparently. I don't see any sign of recent climber. Nobody has been here."

"Okay then," she cracked her knuckles. "It's the same with climbing trees, right?" She approached the foot of the rock to meet the poles. She started climbing them one by one.

"Pretty much. Just minus the leaves," I followed her from behind. Since I was following her from below, it's safe to say that I enjoyed the view. But I kept it for myself.

Once Anna reached the top, she helped me with an extended arm to reach for me. I accepted the hand and she pulled me up with one go. Inevitably, I ended up in her arms.

On top, the circular space is relatively small, as it is roughly only four meters wide. There are only two trees. Their shadows provided us cool air and the tall grass underneath the trees provided us a hiding spot. There can't be a more comfortable and strategic place on the island to see the whole island.

"Feast your eyes with the view," I smiled.

Once again, her jaw dropped to the floor.

On the far west side of the island, I spotted the village. As I inspected the village more carefully, I learned that the Therodians had apparently expanded the area of the village by a tad by cutting the woods on the north side of the village. But other than that, the view was still very much the same when I last visited this place a year ago. We could see the Basin Point where the aquatic environments were like the giant river, small ponds, and waterfalls, and the New Raven Point where most of the greens were.

"Maybe Therondia really is trying to gain profit by selling the dragons," I clicked my tongue. "I expected to see the village being expanded, but apart from redecorating, they haven't really expanded the area for civilization," I concluded.

"Oh really?" She laid her cheek on her hand. "Well, that's good then."

"It is."

I sat on the tall grass, and Anna followed me. We merely laid down to one another while enjoying the breeze and the view. To make ourselves more comfortable, we removed our armor plates; from our shoulder pads, knee pads, arm piece, chest plate, and more, until we were merely left with our casual outfit.

When I looked to the right side of the view, I noticed Anna had already shut her eyes.

"One hour, that's it," I warned.

"Hiccup..." she opened her eyes by half. "Don't be so mean. Make that two."

To be fair, the walk also wore me out. A brief shut-eye was not something I could say no to.

I nodded down. "All right... two hours..."

I slowly shut my eyes. Once I was half asleep, my upper half collapsed to the ground.

**Anna's POV**

I opened my eyes ever so slowly to see a peacefully sleeping Hiccup Haddock. When I was about to get up, I noticed something sticky on the end of my lips. Drools. Lots of them. it could only mean one thing.

It was one of the best sleeps I've ever had in my entire life! I never thought grass would be such a nice thing to sleep on.

After cracking a few bones and stretching my unmoved muscles, I crawled to the edge to see the view again. It was still the same beautiful view of New Berk. However, I quickly noticed the change of the sun's position. It was already nearing the west. It could only mean one thing!

"Hiccup!" I turned back to him. "We've overslept! Wake up!" I shook his body.

"Hnghh... huh... what?"

"Wake up! We slept for too long!"

"Huh?" He bolted up and crawled to the edge of the rock. He looked up to see where the sun was.

He groaned. "Well, it is as you requested, honey. This is what two hours sleep looks like."

"Oh, for real?" I asked.

"Yes, dearie," he nodded as he grabbed his shoulder piece to put it on. "But boy, _*yawn*_ was it worth it."

"Agree to agree," a chuckle escaped my mouth as I put on my armor pieces back. Once we're finished, I gave the view one final look.

"So... We head back?" I asked the Viking.

"On a different route. This route should be a tad shorter than the one we took to get to her," he said.

"So, there was a shorter route, after all," I smirked. "Well, I didn't mind the extra length though, since, well," I was sure I was blushing at this point. "I'm with you."

"Then we pretty much have the same idea, after all," he nudged me playfully as he walked over to the poles and descended down the rock carefully. After a space was available, I climbed down along the poles. Once finally setting foot on the ground, I cleared off the dust on my hands.

"Lead the way, Chief," I said.

"Aye, Your Majesty."

With that, Hiccup led me to a series of woods. It was a walk consisting of nothing but trees and whatever lived among them, and it lasted for an hour. We did stumble upon a pond, but that was it.

To keep the walk lively, I continued to harass the Viking with questions. The island and its content were something I was so interested in. Of course, we occasionally changed the topic to something else other than the island. But mainly, we talked about the island and Hiccup's experiences when he explored the island and its secrets, upsides, and downsides.

As we kept on, I noticed that it was getting late. The beams of light through the leaves of the trees were getting more and more yellowish, a sign that it was nearing sunset.

"It's getting late... We can't stay here for long, it's not safe," Hiccup said from behind.

I turned to him briefly. "Yeah..."

When I turned back around, that's when I discovered that I've stepped into a weird clearing in the woods. There was no grass nor vines in the area, just plain dirt.

"This is oddly... random," I commented while looking around at the environment.

"The soil... some people have done some digging. What could have they—HURK!"

"Hiccup?" I turned around and saw Hiccup running away into the vines and crashed himself there.

"Hiccup! What's wrong?" I rushed over to him, but on my way, I noticed something poking out of the ground. It was hard to make out with the dim lighting and its small size, but it was definitely someone's finger, slowly being eaten by maggots.

"HURGFF—" I heard Hiccup vomiting his stomach out from a distance. I quickly rushed over to his side and rubbed the back of his neck to ease him.

Eventually, he stopped puking and sat down on the vines, wiping his mouth with his hand. I thought that was it, but his breathing became uncontrollable within seconds.

"I-I-Is this... t-the g-grave—"

I placed a finger on his lips to seal them. "Shh... no need to mention the word."

"A-Anna..." He gripped my sleeves, pulling me closer. "T-That's..."

I cupped his cheeks, connecting our eyes together. "Hiccup, look at me. I'm s-so sorry, but there's nothing we can do..."

He began to break down even more, his breathing sounding more and more messy.

"Who's there?!"

I turned to the source of the call and spotted silhouettes of patrolling Therondians on their horses between the trees.

 _"Hiccup, we have to go, NOW,"_ I whispered and pulled him up on his feet. When I pulled him along, he merely collapsed on his track. This attracted more unwanted attention as I saw the patrol turning the sound of Hiccup collapsing.

"THERE! STOP WHERE YOU ARE!"

"Hiccup, it's now or never!" I tried pulling him up, but he didn't help me at all. Only after a brief glance to the grave of his people did he finally stand back on his feet and start running with me.

We ran as fast as we could, but our speed was nothing compared to the speed of the horses. It didn't take long before one man blocked our path with his horse. We were about to break left, but another horseman blocked our path again. Hiccup and I were soon cornered, making us draw our weapons out. We pressed our backs to one another, waiting for a move from our opponents.

"Where have you been hiding, little guy?" One guy taunted.

"Oh look, a pretty one," another one taunted as he hopped of his horse.

"She doesn't seem like a Berkian. That shield is anything but Berkian," other man commented. "Though the cool flaming sword is definitely Berkian."

"Doesn't matter. We bring 'em to boss. He'll be happy to see this," the last man spoke. Luckily, the brief dialogue let us know that we were facing four of them. Almost like they were telepathically communicating to each other, the four leaped to us simultaneously. To dodge, I rolled away to an open space. Once behind them, I swept one of the guys on the foot, bringing him to the ground. I had no desire to kill, so I merely disabled the man by slashing my blade on his leg, particularly on the area that was not protected by his leg piece.

"ARGHH! You BITCH!"

Another man charged towards me with his shield. I barely anticipated this, so once making contact, I was sent flying a couple of meters away. However, I stood back on my feet right away after rolling on the ground. Even he briefly found the move surprising.

However, he took no moment and charged towards me again. When he was close enough, I leaped to the right to dodge him. I used his momentum to throw him away by grabbing him by the shoulder and aimed his path to a nearby tree, which he hit hard with his face.

"Anna!"

I turned to the source of the call and spotted Hiccup on a horse heading towards me. He extended his arm to catch me. On the perfect moment, I caught his arm and used it to swing onto the horse's back.

"How far away are we from the elevator?!" I asked.

"With this horse, probably within a minute or two. Can you take over? I don't know how to steer the guy," he said. As careful as possible, we switched seats while still galloping through the woods.

Finally, I placed my foot on the harness correctly. I watched Hiccup taking his seat behind me while carefully holding onto him tight. "Hold on..."

"Anna!—"

_THWACK!_

Out of nowhere, a branch hit the Viking mid-track.

"HICCUP!" I pulled the neck strap of the harness to slow the horse down. After coming to a full stop, I turned the horse around. That's when I discovered more horsemen were coming for the Viking! Hiccup apparently noticed the sight as well after recovering himself.

"Anna, GO! JUST LEAVE ME!"

Our distance was far because of late reaction, farther than the distance between him and the incoming soldiers, and that was most likely why he told me to leave him instead. However, I was not going to obey that, obviously. I kicked my horse and galloped my way to Hiccup on full speed.

Despite my speed, I saw right from afar the sight of Therondian horsemen charging towards Hiccup on their horses with their weapons drawn out, full jousting style, only Hiccup had no horse to ride on. One leading horseman charged to him with a long battle axe. Hiccup hid behind a relatively thin tree to avoid it, but the momentum built by the horse was apparently enough to break the tree. The impact sent the Viking flying. This was my opportunity.

With a short calculation, I hopped off my horse and caught Hiccup midair. Landing on the ground hard, I briefly checked him for any wound.

"Hiccup? Are you okay? Any cut or anything?" I asked.

"Nghh... Just concussion, I've had worse..." he said. I helped him stand up.

_"NEIGHHH—!"_

The horse I was riding on crashed itself into the incoming pack of horsemen, which gave us a room to move up and go.

"Can you run?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah! Let's go!"

We both ran for our dear lives while the Therondians behind us were struggling to recover from the heavy crash I just laid upon them. We ran and ran until it all became familiar. The trees, the vines. I could tell that we were already in New Raven Point. We ultimately reached the clearing we started today's scouting from. Hiccup rushed over to the spot where the manhole was and lifted the vines on top of it. Once he got it opened, I slipped in and him afterwards.

We both crashed onto the platform hard. I grabbed the lever and gave it a pull right away to descend.

"Find 'em! They have to be here, somewhere!"

We looked up and saw an obvious shadow of a man standing right on top of the manhole itself. Seeing so, Hiccup immediately pulled the lever of the elevator to halt the descend, since it made noise as we descended. We heard more and more men coming on horses.

Hiccup and I kept our breathing low and steady while watching the shadow of the man above our heads cautiously. From the movement of his shadow, we saw the man looking left and right for any sign.

"They must've gone deeper into the forest," he spoke to himself. With that, he walked away from the manhole.

We focused on our hearing senses to make sure that it really was safe to descend down again. There was the sound of horses neighing, men asking each other about our latest whereabouts, and of course, their footsteps. We waited until all of these noises go away.

"I think we're clear..." Hiccup muttered under his breath as he pulled the lever again.

"Phew, too close... but... now they know that they have intruders..." I turned to him worryingly.

"Doesn't change anything. We just have to be more cautious," he sighed. For someone who had just hit a tree while riding a horse and had just been hit on the back by a charging battle axe, Hiccup still sounded determined as ever. However, I soon noticed that it was a mere sugarcoat when his chin collapsed.

"Fuck me, how many bodies were there?..." he recalled to the latest finding we just found.

"Shhh..." I pulled him close and hugged him from the side. To return it, he merely grabbed my hand, entangling them.

We remained like this until we reached the bottom of the chamber. Hiccup was so preoccupied with whatever he had inside his mind that he didn't know that we had already reached the bottom. To notify him, I nudged him gently.

"Hiccup... We're here," I softly spoke. He perked up and noticed so.

"Oh, okay."

We stood up and hopped off the platform. My arm remained around his own, and my other hand on his shoulder, caressing it while making our way back to the base. Once we reached the base, Fishleg was there, waiting for us.

"Hey, you two! So what did you see?" He asked excitingly.

I waved a hand as in a 'no' to him. "Not now, Fishleg. Sorry!" I warned. The Viking immediately got the signal and nodded down. Some other Vikings wanted to hear the result of our outing as well as we walked, so I gave them the same message that this was not the best time to tell them. Luckily, they were understanding.

"Hiccup? Care to take the first plate?" Mrs. Hoffman offered while stirring the stew inside her cauldron.

"I think I'll pass dinner for now, Mrs. Hoffman, thank you," Hiccup politely said as he removed my arm around his.

"Anna, where's our tent again?" He asked.

"Oh, um," I pointed to the farthest end of the beach where the line of tents stopped. "There, the farthest one. It's green, has Arendellian embroidery. You can't mistake it from the others."

"Right... I think I'll call it a day. You can catch up later," he said as he walked away. He radiated a very obvious aura of sorrow, and I was not the only one who picked it up.

"What's wrong with him?" Mrs. Hoffman asked, pointing to him with her spoon.

"Oh... tough day," I answered.

"Tough day?"

I turned to my right and spotted my sister there. "Anna, what happened?"

Not just her, but other Vikings were dying out of curiosity. I looked at their faces that just demanded nothing but an answer. "Oh, all right. Grab your bowl, and listen to me."

...

I tried to end the story as soon as possible since I wanted to be by Hiccup's side, even if he had already slept. However, only around an hour later did I finally finish sharing to the Vikings about our story. Since Therondians now knew that they have unwelcome guests on the island, we had to come up with a different approach. We discussed and discussed, and I actually left mid-discussion because it was taking too long.

I approached the tent Hiccup was in and opened it. There he was, merely sitting down criss-cross applesauce while staring blankly at the ground and holding his pillow.

"Hey..." I entered the tent and sat next to him. "You okay?"

"I... I don't know... Wish I could just snap my finger and sleep," he snapped a finger, and of course, he didn't fall asleep just like he wanted.

"Awh, come here," I placed his pillow on my lap and made him lay down his head on it. I gently caressed his shoulder in a loving manner with one hand, and the other on his fuzzy hair. Seeing him this sad obviously saddened me as well, knowing that he was pretty much the complete opposite this morning.

"I hope the trip made you feel better?" He asked.

I raised a brow. "Come again?"

"The trip. It made you feel better, did it not?"

I placed a hand on my chest. "Awh, Hiccup. Of course it did."

"Good, because I don't feel like singing at the moment," he smirked. That gave me an idea.

"Well, I think I'll sing for you," I suggested. "How about that?"

He smiled again. "Sure."

I returned the smile with the same thing. I fixed his position to make him more comfortable. "Cuddle close, scooch in..."

I inhaled some air.

_"Where the north wind meets the sea..._

_There's a river full of memory."_

I began running my pinky on his nose line after giving his nose a 'boop'. His eyes began to struggle to stay open afterwards.

_"Sleep, my darling, safe and sound_

_For in this river all is found..."_

* * *

I was deep in my slumber when I heard footsteps walking here and there outside of the tent. I peeled my eyes open to a shadow of two people talking to each other just outside of our tent.

"A fleet of them?!" One said, which I assumed was Valka, judging from her womanly voice.

"A fleet of them, yes. They have returned from the Hidden World!" The other voice replied, which I guessed was Astrid.

**Bwoah! Longest chapter EVER! What do you think? Too much filler? Haha, don'tyoudare. I guess when I plan to squeeze this much into a chapter, then** **_this_ ** **much shall be squeezed in.**

**Oh, and something tells me that "All is Found" won't be the only song I feature into the story (;**

**Thank you for reading!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Hiccup's POV**

"All right, everybody set? Gather here!"

With that command, everybody gathered in front of me, including the flock of Terrible Terrors and Nokk himself. I never thought the sight of the gang (which is sadly no longer intact) wearing their old dragon scale outfit would be something I'd see again. But here they are, wearing each of their own. All except for the Arendellians, obviously.

"I do miss wearing this," I gestured to my own dragon scale outfit.

"I think I need to enlarge the area around my crotch, since it's got bigger," Tuffnut gestured to the area he meant. Everybody else simply cringed at the audacity of the Viking. To knock the audacity out of the Viking, Astrid gave him a good knock by the head with the handle of her battle axe.

"Ow!"

"Right, shame that your helmet needs the opposite treatment, even after all these years," I cleared my throat. "All right! I actually had to say this when we briefed out the plan before packing up. It's um… it has something to do with my last scouting with Anna."

"You were spotted, we know," Astrid crossed her arms. "But… hearing Anna's explanation, we get it. We would've reacted the same, or worse," she bobbed her head. I looked to Anna who nodded with a smile, confirming that she indeed told everything.

"Okay. Still, my apology. It will certainly make life harder once we're up there, but it's not something we cannot accomplish. Anyone would like to ask something regarding the plan?" I asked. Nobody raised their hands or anything.

"All right. May the Gods bless us," I gestured my fellow Berkians to follow my lead. "Come."

With that, everybody except Nokk, who returned to the water for later use in the plan, followed my lead. We returned to the island labyrinth to reach the elevator room. Through the narrow gaps, steep ledges, multiple crossed paths, we eventually returned to the elevator chamber. Right away, everybody else was taken aback by the sight of the icy elevator itself and the hole of the previous wooden elevator made on the hole, which would lead to the frozen crater of the volcano.

Seeing that there are seventeen of us, and the elevator only capable of carrying half of the number, I divided my people into two groups. The first to ascend consisted of me, Anna, Elsa, Eret, Astrid, Tuffnut, my mother, and Fishleg, and the second consisted of the rest. My group hopped onto the elevator and started ascending to the top of the island once Astrid gave the lever a pull. Inevitably, the process took longer, considering there were more of us.

"You're saying that this is more rigid than the previous one?" Astrid asked, sounding as if she couldn't believe it.

"Uh huh," Elsa smiled proudly. "Well, to be fair, the old one is… old."

"Won't this eventually melt?" Fishleg asked curiously.

"Not with permafrost," Elsa replied.

"What's that?" Tuffnut asked.

Elsa kept on with her lecture about her magic and permafrost until we neared the top ground. With the manhole in reach, I told the others to be silent and listen close to the surroundings.

"Do you hear anything?" I whispered.

"I don't hear anything, son," my mother replied. "I think it's safe to come out now."

Agreeing that the coast was safe, I slowly lifted the manhole above our heads and took a peek through whatever I could see through the vines and leaves that hid the manhole itself. Seeing no movement, I cleared the vines and climbed up. I helped the others doing so afterwards.

"Oh New Berk…" Astrid whispered as I helped her up, sealing the manhole after it since she was the last to go. "I miss you so terribly."

"Everyone, keep a low profile," I warned them, and they immediately ducked in the tall vines after admiring the woods of New Raven Point. I get it that they miss the place so much, but stealth was the name of the game. Once everyone matched their heights with the vines around them, we proceeded to watch our surroundings for any possibility of incoming patrol on our stations. However, the cloudy sky was not helping us. Soon, the sky gave us a hint of lightnings.

"Hiccup?"

I turned around to Anna who was crouching towards me. "Yes?"

"Can we talk for a moment?" She grabbed her hands together.

"Yeah, sure."

She took my hands and kept them inside hers. "I need you to promise me we do this together."

I raised a brow. "I'm already doing it in that manner."

She firmed her grip on my hands even more. "Please, I can't risk losing you. I need you to understand. Say it!"

Seeing the sternness of the queen, I decided that I was better off to be obedient to her. "I understand."

Despite already saying the set of words she specifically wanted to hear from me, Anna remained staring into my eyes judgmentally. I could tell that she was trying her best to figure out whether or not I genuinely meant what I just said. A moment later, she loosened her grip on my hands.

"Good…"

The stern look she had suddenly dropped into a frown. "It is all I ask. Please."

"I promise, Anna," I added to assure her.

"… It's just, last time, you—" she suddenly turned to her sister, whom I assumed was crouching to her station.

"Elsa, come here!" Elsa turned to the call and slowly crouched to my side.

"What is it now, Hiccup?" She asked.

"What, me?"

**I specifically made some illustrations for this very scene :D check them out on Wattpad!**

"Hiccup, last time, when we were chased by the Therondian horsemen, you told me to abandon you. I don't want to hear anything like that coming out of you," Anna demanded. "Elsa, you too. I don't want you to… I don't know what trick you have under your sleeve, but if it involves separating us, it's a big no. Understand?"

Elsa and I shared a glance before she added something for herself. "Anna, I will be alright. I have my power, you don't—"

"You _do_ know that specific argument will never work for me, seeing that it is completely irrelevant because of the things I've done _without_ any magical power, don't you?" Anna immediately countered back, crossing her arms.

Elsa seemed offended for a brief moment, but then she realized her sister's strong point. "Alright, alright…"

I turned to Anna. "We promise, Anna."

Elsa nodded in agreement. "We do."

Fortunately, Anna seemed content with our response. She smiled and pulled the two of us into a hug, a really tight hug.

"I love you two," Anna spoke softly.

"We love you too, Anna," Elsa and I replied in unison. We shared a glance and a giggle afterwards. To add more jinx, we kissed Anna in the same time by the hair before letting her go.

_Creak…_

I turned to the source of the creaking noise and found out that the second group had already reached the ground as well. Some of us proceeded to help them as the rest kept on watching the coast to make sure we were safe. Once everybody had climbed up the manhole, it was time to move.

Mother and I led the group in the darkness. I could sense that a massive rain was coming, judging from the harsh wind and that particular scent on the air of an incoming rain. Even though it made the trip less comfortable, it sure did give us more protection because no stars were there to illuminate the night.

My prediction was correct; the Therondians had upped their patrolling duty. We encountered several packs of men scouting the ground of the woods with torches. Each pack always consisted of a horseman, a swordsman, and a rifleman. We didn't want to surprise the horse nor the rifleman, since they could get so loud if alerted. Hence, we circled each pack from a safe distance to avoid them. It was the safest maneuver, but it was also time-consuming. And in our way, there were a lot of these.

Eventually, after what we thought was eternity, we finally arrived to the village hall. Or, what used to be it.

"Whoa, it's huge!" Mother commented in a low voice while staring at the dome.

"Yes it is…" I replied. I scanned the clearing just outside of the dome and saw no activity other than the two guards by the entrance.

"All right," I turned to the group behind me. "I see two guards by the entrance."

"I will take care of it, son," mother replied.

"And so will I," Eret added. There really couldn't be a better duo to do the job, so I nodded to the two and let them go.

In utmost silence, the duo moved their way to the entrance. Eret approached the one on the right side of the entrance, and mother on the left. Almost like they telepathically communicated to each other, the two pulled the guards with their weapons and ended their lives quickly with a stab of a dagger on the back of their necks. Once done, they signaled us to move in as they dragged the bodies into the building. Seeing the signal, we moved quickly.

Once entering the building, I watched the coast behind us to make sure no one spotted our movement. With Astrid coming in last, I shut the double door and turned to Elsa.

"Elsa, could you freeze the door? Just to be safe," I requested.

"Sure thing."

She grabbed the handles of the door and froze them altogether. After that, she shot a beam of ice along the seam to really lock the doors.

"Well, they didn't change much to this part of the hall," Fishleg commented.

"Well, that's what we also said to ourselves when we first entered this place," Anna replied, shrugging.

I led the others deeper into the dome through the rooms. I stopped at a double door that would lead to the previous office we once came in. Giving a gesture to the gang that we were going to barge in, I counted to three before giving the door a kick.

Right away, we spotted three Therondian men inside the room.

"Wha—"

Before he could even finish, I jumped into the man and locked him by the neck with my hatchet. The others jumped into the other two while knocking some decorations on their way. The man tried to fight back while managing with his breath, but I kept my lock nice and tight.

Once I felt my blade planted on the skin of his neck, I pulled my hatchet with all my muscles. Right away, my hatchet was coated in blood for the first time, to which I was sure more blood would be mixed on it later on.

I looked up to the others and discovered that they were done with the other two.

"Good job."

I stood back on my feet and led the pack through more rooms, which oddly had no one inside. But I took my chances and led them to the interior of the dome itself. I was about to go to a door that would lead to a set of staircases that connected the room we were in and the room where the dragons were, but to be safe, I looked through a window that gave a view to it. Everybody else joined in.

"Oh my god! Look at those Nadders!" Astrid said while jumping in excitement.

"Is that Barf and Belch?" Tuffnut planted his face on the window to look better.

I understood why they were so preoccupied with the dragons. But nobody questioned the most obvious question there was. I looked here and there, but I saw not even one Therondian inside the dome.

"Is anybody going to question why there's no Therondian inside?" I asked.

They merely shook their heads.

"Perhaps they're on their way to fetch the shipment from the ships?" Fishleg guessed.

"Well, the shipments they will need to move are these ones, don't you think?" I asked. "Why move the dragons here if they are going to ship them overseas?"

"Well that can only mean one thing. They are on _their_ way to here to move these guys to their ships," Eret said.

I processed his statement. It was the most logical suggestion there was. But it meant that we wouldn't have much time to work.

"Okay. Let's free our dragons."

I rushed my way through the door and descended down the staircases to the cages of the dragons. Once on the ground level, everybody spread out to each of their own station, including the Terrible Terrors.

"All right! Work fast people!" I grabbed my torcher out and approached one random cage filled with four Monstrous Nightmares. The tight space provided inside the cage was not a pleasant sight to see, as they were cramped to one another. Right away, my presence startled the dragons. They began grumbling lowly in a vigilant manner.

"Easy… we're going to get you out…" I said reassuringly while climbing my way up the cage to reach the joint of the door of the cage. Once on top, I gave the view ahead of me a brief look. Everybody was on their selected cages, doing the same thing. The dragons inevitable began to growl, either in excitement or fear.

I turned on my torcher and aimed the fire on the joint. Once contacting, the steel immediately melted due to the immense heat of the fire. With a kick, I opened the door down.

_CLANG!_

The Nightmares slowly walked out of the cage, looking around curiously before dashing off to the other cages in excitement. One Nightmare extended its long neck to reach my position. The dragon looked into my eyes in curiosity. With the same old technique, I extended my arm and looked away. Within a second, I sensed the dragon's scales right away. I turned to the Nightmare again who had its eyes closed, a sign that I earned his trust. After that, the dragon joined the others.

_CLANG!_

_CLANG!_

I looked up to see more doors being opened. Because of the action, my fellow Vikings gained the dragons' trusts right away. It was a sight of success, so I smiled at it.

"Whoa! Easy there lads!" Eret said as pack of Rumblehorns came out of the cages and started sniffing at him. One of them might very well be Skullcrusher, a dragon dad used to own.

"Dude! They _are_ Barf and Belch! I recognize the breath!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he gave his dragon a hug, which the dragon welcomed. Ah, what are the odds?

"Ahahaha!" Mother laughed in excitement as her Stormcutter, Cloudjumper, pinned her down after recognizing her scent. But then I realized something.

"Wait, if Cloudjumper is out… that means…" I spoke to myself.

"Whoa! Hiccup!"

I turned around and all I knew was that I was pinned onto a ground by a black object. I couldn't open my eyes to see what it was because I was licked and licked. But soon, I sensed a familiarity on the drool. Its stickiness matched Anna's, and it could only mean one thing.

Once the licking stopped, I opened my eyes to Toothless.

"Hey bud!" I hugged the dragon by the head and gave him scratches. In the process, I noticed Anna, who was already on his back.

"Well, hello there," I smirked. "I see that you're a natural."

She chuckled. "He put me up here by himself, before he spotted you and just went wild."

I stood back on my feet while still giving my dragon scratches. "All right, let me just put the saddle on him. You continue with the others, kay?"

She stepped off Toothless with a smile. "Aye chief."

With that, I put on the flying saddle I had brought along just for Toothless. It took some time, but luckily Toothless had not grown so much since we last had our very last flight, meaning the saddle and harnesses I had brought along still could fit just well.

I did one last touch by clipping a rope to the tail and looked at the final result. It's been too long since I last saw my dragon equipped with flying harnesses. Looking at the harnesses around him, Toothless gave me that excited gum smile.

"I know you're excited and all, but you won't be in that for too long," I patted him by the head. "If, all goes accordingly to plan, of course. Now help me out, come on."

I went over to the other cages. With the boost provided by Toothless, I no longer needed to do the climbing in order to reach the joint of the door of the cage. We freed more and more dragons, and inevitably, creating more noise from inside the dome.

Once Toothless and I were about to reach to another cage, Elsa halted me on my track.

"Hiccup, I need your help with Lyrie!"

The name didn't ring a bell at all in my head. "Lyrie?"

"Oh, um, the um… Light Fury. You told me to name it, right?" She smiled cheekily.

"Ooohhhh!" I placed my hands on my hips. "Lyrie, huh? Break the background later, what's wrong?"

"She seems…" she turned to the direction of where the cage was. Soon, I found what seemed to be troubling. "Weak."

The three of us rushed our way towards the cage. There she was, Lyrie, merely laying down. Elsa knelt down to give the Light Fury her affection and the dragon responded with a weak purr. Right away, I spotted the answer to why the dragon seemed weak.

"Well, I don't think anything's wrong. Maybe it's nearing time for her to lay her eggs," I crossed my arms.

Elsa turned to the bulge Lyrie had on her belly. "Oh yeah. I forgot that she was pregnant."

As gently as possible, the Light Fury's partner nudged the dragon by the head, gesturing her to stand. It almost seemed impossible initially, but Lyrie managed to stand on her own eventually.

"I give it… two days until she is to lay her eggs," I guessed as we watched the dragon couple wandering off to a random direction.

"Well, if all goes accordingly to plan, they are flying back to the Hidden World tonight, right?" Elsa asked.

"If all goes accordingly to plan," I repeated while nodding. "But why Lyrie?"

"A combination between 'Light' and 'Fury'. Thought you'd figure it out by yourself," she grabbed her hips.

My mouth rounded at the explanation. "Ohh—"

_Thud thud thud!_

The disntant dull banging noise emitted from the entrance. It was small, but it was loud enough for all of us to notice and turn to it. It could only mean that the Therondian had already learned our whereabouts and were trying to break in.

"Hasten up, people!" I exclaimed and rushed to a random cage. "We don't have much time!"

With my command, everybody else proceeded to work faster while the thudding noise kept sounding. I swear as time passed, the noise became louder and louder, exhilarating our adrenaline more and more.

Suddenly, at one point, the thudding noise stopped.

"Did they just give up?" Tuffnut asked.

_BOOM!_

An explosion occurred from the entrance, and soon we heard men crying. Hearing so, the dragons cornered themselves to the farthest corner in fear.

"Astrid! Mrs. Hoffman! Ms. Vrataski! Hold those men up while we free the rest!" I commanded. The three names nodded to the command and hopped onto their Nadders, marching to the incoming Therondian men.

It didn't take long before we spotted a horde of men running their way into the room, drawing their weapons out in the process. To counter the attack, Astrid and others commanded their dragons to spew hot flame into the horde. The men lifted their shield to block the flame, but the Nadders' flame was too hot for them to bear. They cried in pain and agony.

"Remember to be generous with the shots, Astrid!" I exclaimed from afar.

"I know!" She replied, turning her attention back to her opponents.

I turned my attention to the last three cages that contained some Gronckles, Timberjacks, and a Crimson Goregutter. Mr. Hoffman and Fishleg were soon done with the ones that contained the Timberjacks and Gronckles, but the one that contained the large Crimson Goregutter took the longest because of its sheer size.

"You're handling well up there, mom?" I asked her, who was burning the joint slowly with the torcher.

I turned around again to the horde of Therondian Astrid were facing. Judging from the gap, I could tell that she was struggling to hold back the horde despite her bigger firepower. Their number was overwhelming for my fellow Vikings.

"This joint is so thick! I'm gonna need more hands on this!" Mother scratched her hair in frustration.

"Let me!"

With a boost from the Light Fury, Elsa jumped onto the top of the cage where mother was. Mother and her dragon gave her space to work. First, she cooled down the joint with a beam of ice before she took a good grip on them. Soon, spiky icicles formed on the joint of the cage as Elsa flowed her power to it.

"Aghhhh!" Elsa grunted as she kept on. All of us could only watch impatiently and worriedly since the job seemed to be wearing Elsa out by the second. The icicles grew longer, and Cloudjumper inevitably saw this as a threat as he covered his master with one of his wings.

"Anytime now, guys!" Astrid called from the other side of the dome.

"GAH!" Elsa pulled her hands away from the joint and smashed it with her bare fists. The joint was turned into small pieces of ice, allowing the majestic Crimson Goregutter to come out. The dragon roared majestically as it expanded its wings.

"All right, that's all!" I exclaimed, climbing onto Toothless. "Where's Anna?" I looked around.

"On your six," Anna said as she joined me.

"Ah, good," I turned to Elsa. "Elsa, you good?"

She wept off her sweat on her forehead and later gave me a thumbs up. "All good…"

She was about to collapse on her knees, but Lyrie the Light Fury caught her before she could. "Ah… good girl…" Elsa complimented, patting her apparent new dragon.

"Astrid! We're done!" I exclaimed.

"Ah! About time!" She replied.

Astrid gestured her Nadder to the ceiling of the dome. Seconds later, the Nadder sent a fireball into the ceiling, which caused a hole on it. I signaled my own dragon to do the same, and he did. Afterwards, more and more fireballs followed, erasing the ceiling of the dome from existence. Once the night sky was in sight, I took Anna's hands and had them wrapped around me.

"All right, hang on…"

Toothless expanded his wings and leaped to the sky with one push.

"WHOAAAAA—"

"Hang on Anna!" I told her. She immediately tightened her grip on me as we kept climbing altitudes.

Once we were high enough, several hundred meters from the ground, I signaled Toothless to hover to wait for the others. I turned around and saw the others on their dragons, and of course, the dragons themselves, slowly reaching towards us. But one view that struck me the most was the view of New Berk itself. Viewing it from Vantage Point was nice, but viewing it from up here with my people was something else.

"Well… I have said this before, but welcome to New Berk," I said to Anna, who turned out to be hiding her face on my back. Ever so slowly, she looked down to the view below.

"W-woah…" she breathed.

I squeezed her entangled hands. "Pretty cool, right?"

"This is amazing…" she captured my hand and entangled it in hers. While waiting for the others by enjoying the view, Elsa suddenly came out of nowhere with Lyrie.

"I didn't know she could still fly!" Elsa said while holding onto the dragon, chuckling.

"Well, she still can!" I turned to the flock of dragons behind me. "Has everyone got out of the dome?"

 _"_ _GROARRR!"_

All of us looked down to the large growling, who turned out to be the previous Goregutter. I saw no more dragons behind the large beast.

"I think that's all, Hiccup," Eret replied, who was on his Rumblehorn. "Shall we go now?"

"We shall. Everybody! To the ships! Follow my lead!"

"YEAH!"

I gave my dragon a gentle pat, a sign for him to go. I steered him to the outer skirt of the island before we lowered our altitude to meet the fleet of Therondian ships that carried cages of dragons. Our presences were recognized right away as I saw men and women pointing up to our direction, but not that they could send a counter attack.

There were several options to choose, but I chose the loneliest one; a ship on the east side of the island. I steered Toothless to the ship and landed on the deck hard. As more and more dragons landed on the ship, the ship wobbled from left to right. Once we stepped onboard, we were welcomed with drawn weapons.

"ATTACK!"

"All right. Same plan. Some hold the enemies, some free the dragons!" I exclaimed. I drew my weapons out with Anna, wanting to take care of the enemies this time, as the others went to the cages. I counted at least twenty men ahead of me, so I blindly charged my way to them. but before I could even reach them, Toothless jumped in front of me and swept his tail to the men in front of me. And then, a Timberjack dashed across the deck, hitting some men on its track and sending them off the ship. The help from the dragons was the biggest support that I never saw coming. However, more soldiers emerged from the lower deck, and it didn't take long before we clashed swords.

Because of the busy deck, I could hardly keep up with what's going on. There were sword battles, arrows flying, rifles being shot, Elsa's ice blasts, the dragons spewing flame, battle cries, cries of pain. They were all happening on one deck. Sure, it was a large ship with a wide deck, but that made it harder for me to really keep track of what's going on.

_CRASH!_

_BOOM!_

The whole ship just tilted to the portside because of a certain impact from the starboard side, causing most of us to lose balance in the process. After regaining our composures, that's when we learned that the other Therondian ships were firing their cannons to the ship we were onboard. I saw Elsa jumping into action right away as she summoned a giant ice wall on the ship's starboard side, protecting us from cannonballs.

"Agh!—"

I was knocked off by a Nadder who was chasing a Therondian. To add more onto the pile, an arrow flew past my face. I turned to the direction of where it came from to avoid more but merely saw a Therondian reloading her crossbow while facing Astrid from a distance. While getting myself up, a sword landed right next to me. I faced up to see a large man, very much hungry for blood from the way he looked at me. He swung his sword up again to give me a blow when something sent him flying.

I looked around for the source and found Toothless on the ship's mast, steam emitting from his mouth. "Toothless! No! Too dangerous!"

I could see that he disagreed with the warning, but he obeyed my command as he continued fighting without his plasma blast.

"Hiccup!" Anna called from behind.

I turned to her. "What?"

"All dragons are freed!" She pointed upwards where the dragons were flying away. "We can go now!"

"Oh, okay! Guys! The floor is lava!" I signaled. Hearing upon this, my fellow Vikings hopped onto their dragons, abandoning their fights with the Therondians. I hopped onto Toothless with Anna after clearing our path.

"Toothless! Plasma blast! To the floor!" I pointed to the deck. Obeying my command, the dragon spat a plasma blast to the deck, hollowing it right away. Soon, the other dragons did the same, they spew blazing flame to the deck and ascended onto the air slowly.

 _"_ _GROARRRRRR!"_

The loud growling from afar halted us on our tracks. It was a growl that I've heard only once in my life, but my mind was struggling to remember. Soon, it didn't take long for us to recognize the dragon behind the cry.

"It can't be… WATCH OUT!" I warned the others.

Two Red Deaths were charging blindly towards our direction. We anticipated the incoming attack too late, so most of us collided against the titan dragons' thick skulls.

_CRASH!_

Toothless, Anna, and I were knocked off into the water along with the others. Underwater, I saw debris of the ship, pieces of the ice wall, the dragons, and the most horrifying; my people. Right underneath me, I saw Anna and Toothless slowly drowning. I was about to swim after them, but then I saw something dash inside the water. Its distinctive shape was too obvious. Nokk!

The water horse sent individual torrents of water to the direction of my drowning people dragons, carrying them slowly to the surface, including me. Once breaching the surface, I saw Elsa standing up on the water while watching us resurfacing one by one. After counting, she 'stomped' the water, summoning a thick piece of ice underneath us, acting as a temporary spot to stand on.

"Is everybody okay?" Elsa asked as she started checking one by one.

I pushed myself up and crawled to Anna, "Anna… you okay?"

"Ngh… I'm okay…" she slowly rose on her feet, but only to fail because of the slippery ice. Toothless tried doing the same but failed as well.

"Don't bother standing up," I looked to the others. I sighed in relief as they slowly rose on their feet, an obvious sign that they were still alive, though only to end up like Anna who failed doing so. Even the dragons still looked fine.

_BOOM!_

The explosion startled me. I turned around to see the ship, now broken in half due to the collision made by the duo of Red Deaths, taking water while being consumed in fire in the same time. There, on the night cloudy sky, their silhouettes were visibly flying, most likely about to make another turn to hit us again.

"I will take care of this," I crawled over to Toothless and hopped onto him. While saddling up, I heard the water splash from a distance. We all turned to the source. I could swear that more and more dangers were giving us warnings of their arrival.

I saw towering dorsal fins cutting the water and diving down again.

"Hiccup, please tell me that's not what I think it is?" Astrid asked, using her axe to stand up.

"I really don't want to mention the name, too, Astrid," I gritted my teeth. "Help the others! Continue with other ships right away! I'm gonna face these three."

"You can't possibly face them alone!" Anna cut in, using Toothless to balance herself.

"You're right. I can't. That's why I'm only going to try to distract them to give you guys space and room," I excused.

"Hiccup, you promised me that we do this together!" Her tone began to sound desperate. I really hated seeing her like this, but I couldn't risk her life.

"I'm sorry Anna," I looked away. "Toothless, go."

With a nod, Toothless expanded his wings and leaped to the sky within a blink of an eye.

"HICCUP!"


	26. Chapter 26

**Hiccup's POV**

My eyes locked onto the silhouettes of the duo of Red Death's as Toothless and I remained hovering. Occasionally, I glanced to the view below to check whether or not everyone had recovered from the impact. Luckily, Elsa and Nokk were there to save the day with their magic.

As the lighting above materialized, so did a clearer sight of the duo of Death's. It was brief, but I was sure that I saw a hint of a dragon rider on one of the giant dragons.

Toothless readied a plasma blast from the base of his throat as the Red Death's charged to our direction, that usual high-pitched noise emitting from it. However, once the duo was close enough, they suddenly stopped right in front of us, braking with their gigantic wings. That's when Toothless decided to cancel his plasma blast, as he glared to the giant dragons ahead of us.

Right on top of one of the Red Death's stood just the man I wanted to see after hearing his name several times. He smirked proudly.

"Came here for an apology, Drago?" I asked the man.

"Revenge might be more suitable, Son of Stoick the Vast!" He pointed his old spear to me. "Glad to see there are still a few Berkians left! I didn't get my chance to get rid of any during the raid."

I gave the maniac a glare. "Well, cut the chatter and get us then!" I patted Toothless once on the head, my usual signal for him to spit a plasma blast to our opponent. And he did, right towards where Drago stood. However, with a simple dodge behind the Red Death's thick skull, the man evaded the attack.

"Very well!" He came out of hiding and spun his spear around. I knew what this was going to be, or so I thought I did. "ARGGHHH!" Drago screamed on top of his lungs. With that scream, the Red Death's roared loudly. To avoid bleeding eardrums, Toothless descended our altitude. Just when I thought it was over, the giant dragons descended their altitudes as well while keeping on with the roar.

"Whoa—easy girl!"

"What's going on?"

I turned around to see the dragons reacting to the roar of the Red Death's. My friends who were on the back of ones were struggling to keep them under control due to the howling roar, as they kept moving about as if they were possessed. Could it be?

"Toothless!" I called for my dragon. "You're the Alpha, keep them contained!"

Hearing so, the Night Fury roared, but it had no effect at all. Instead, all the dragons we had freed turned to us, giving us a glare that screamed danger.

"A false Alpha," Drago exclaimed, "Will be executed!"

"Hiccup, get away from us!" I heard my mother warned from below. "I have no control of Cloudjumper!"

"Hiccup, you might want to run!" Fishleg warned the same, as he's losing his balance and control of his Gronckle.

Right on the corner of my vision, I spotted a black silhouette flying towards me, which turned out to be a Terrible Terror. I evaded the small dragon with a barrel roll and kicked the little fellow off while doing so. After recovering from the barrel roll, that's when I learned that all of the dragons were coming for us.

"Toothless, let's go!" I commanded. With that, we dashed off to a random direction. To get up to speed of our distance, I occasionally looked behind to see just how far we were from the horde of dragons behind us. Luckily, Toothless was a Night Fury, so speed was not something we were troubled with. This gave me enough time to think.

"Okay… so the Red Death's are apparently the new Alphas…" I looked down to the giant dragons, who seemed to be concentrating while keeping their eyes on the dragons behind us. That gave me an idea.

**Anna's POV**

I watched the dragons fly off into the distance after Hiccup and Toothless hopelessly. Since the dragons seemed to be under the control of the giant dragons, I didn't take my chance to get on one, or even join a Viking that was on the back of one, either.

I was now alone, or, that's what I thought when I spotted my sister seemingly trying to pull something out of the water. I rushed over to her side.

"Anna," Elsa called after recognizing my presence, "Help me out!"

She seemed to be pulling out a tail of a dragon. It didn't take long for me to realize that it was the Light Fury. With every bit of energy there was, I pulled the dragon by the tail slowly. In the middle of the process, I suddenly felt something pushing the body of the dragon from the water, allowing us to place the entire body of the dragon on top of the wobbly ice. It turned out to be Nokk who pushed the Light Fury, as he stepped onto the ice to examine the unconscious dragon.

"Oh no, is she alright?" I spoke, scooching over to the dragon. Elsa tried to sense for any heartbeat inside the dragon with a hand but failed miserably.

"I don't know where the heart is…" Elsa clicked her tongue. As she continued the search, The Light Fury suddenly coughed off water from her mouth.

"Oh thank God!" Elsa said.

The Light Fury weakly turned to us and purred in the same manner.

"It's gonna be alright…" Elsa gently caressed the dragon by the paw. "Anna, do you see any wounds or something?"

I stood up to circle and examine the dragon thoroughly. "Apart from the ones she already had before those two came out of nowhere, I don't see anything."

"Okay, okay…" Elsa turned to me. "Just… whatever are we going to do? There are still more ships to visit, and we're already a wreck."

I looked up the giant dragons ahead of us, who seemed preoccupied with the scene of Hiccup being chased by the horde of dragons. After a lightning lighted the entire sea for a brief second, I discovered that there was a man on top of one of the dragons. He might be the key to this situation.

"Elsa, look!" I knelt down next to her and pointed to the man. "You see that guy?"

"What guy?" She narrowed her eyes to see better.

"The guy standing on top of that dragon! Look!" I placed my head right next to hers and pointed more closely.

"Oh! Could he be… Drago?" Elsa asked.

That never crossed my mind. "It could be. Perhaps you could try to get him off of the dragon?"

Elsa processed my proposal for a moment. "… I can only try."

Elsa placed her fists together and separated them in a curved line, creating a bow of ice as she did so. With the same technique, she created an ice arrow. Once done crafting, she stood up and aimed for her target.

"Wish me luck…"

As Elsa took her time to aim, a high-pitched noise emitted from the sky above. I looked up to see for the possible source of such weird noise but found none.

_PHEW—BOOM!_

Out of nowhere, something exploded by the head of the dragon on which Drago stood on, knocking the dragon off. Then, something black dashed past us in an incredible speed, which gained altitude drastically afterwards to avoid the wall of the cliff. I looked up to the mysterious object and found out that it was Hiccup and Toothless!

The duo flew towards the other giant dragon and landed on its spiky back. It was hard to make out, but I saw a bluish light emitting from the back of the Night Fury. Then, the same high-pitched noise echoed through the air, along with the roar of a Night Fury. What came afterwards almost pierced through our eardrums as a lightning struck the giant dragon from behind.

The lightning caused the dragon to fall into the sea, and apparently also caused rain to fall, as if the very move was a catalyst. Once taking water, the giant dragon panicked and made its way slowly to the wall of the island.

"Anna! Elsa!"

I looked up; it was Astrid, hovering with the other dragons who seemed to be behaving normally now. "Come on! Let's free the other dragons!"

"What about Hiccup?!" I asked.

"He will keep the Red Death's away from us! He will be fine! Let's go!" She then flew away with the others to reach for the fleet of ships on our north. I looked away, biting my bottom lip in despair. To be completely frank, I was not convinced that Hiccup would be okay all by himself up there to face these two gigantic titans. Sure, Toothless was there, but the chances were still there.

"Anna."

I turned to Elsa who had a grip on my shoulder. "If anyone can take down those two, it's Hiccup and Toothless," she smiled reassuringly, which was a sight that you'd never expect in a battlefield. "Have faith."

I stared at her, still feeling uncertain, but then I decided to give it a try, to give it a little faith. "Okay…" I grabbed her hand with my own, "But don't leave my side, okay?"

She nodded. "I won't."

We turned to the Light Fury who was drying herself off from the water all over her skin. She turned to us and tilted her head as if she was saying 'come on!'

"You sure you're okay, Lyrie?" Elsa said as she approached the dragon. The dragon replied with a fierce look that screamed the fact that she was ready to jump back into combat.

"Lyrie?" I questioned.

"Light. Fury. Geez, you're as oblivious as Hiccup," she pulled me to the dragon. "Hop on. I'll ride on Nokk for the time being."

"Whoa, why not just fly together? You're the more experienced one, after all!" I complained as I sat on the back of the dragon.

_"_ _GROARRRR!"_

We turned around and saw the Red Death, as Astrid referred, holding onto the cliff of the island while looking up to the sky, possibly looking for Hiccup and Toothless.

Elsa turned back to me. "She has babies onboard, best not to add any more weight. Hold on!" She patted the dragon on the wing twice. The Light Fury then expanded them and leaped onto the sky.

"WHOAAA—SLOW DOWN LYRIEEE!" I hugged the dragon, hugging for my own dear life. Inevitably, I saw the water below getting farther and farther as we climbed more altitude. I looked away by looking ahead, but that didn't help as the Red Death below spewed a large flamethrower right in front of us.

"Look out!" I warned the dragon. To evade the threat, Lyrie folded her wings by half and flew below the flamethrower itself. Seeing her seamlessly pulling an evasive maneuver like that made me burst with joy.

"Yeahhh!" I cheered as I looked behind to the giant dragon, who later received a random explosion by the head. The purple-y color of the explosion suggested that it was most likely Toothless' doing. And down under, I spotted Nokk galloping on the water with Elsa on it. She gave me a thumbs up while riding the water horse.

Up ahead, I noticed the Vikings and the dragons had landed on another gigantic ship, as there was a great battle onboard. Lyrie landed onboard to let me reach the deck before jumping onto the one of the masts to shoot her fireballs from above.

Seeing that the number of Vikings handling the cages was enough, I ran my way to the busy part of the deck to fend off the Therondian sailors. Before I could even reach it, a flying body of a man knocked me off. While regaining my composures, I noticed the presence of a tall and heavily-armored man wielding a sword that was nearly as long as his own height. I saw literally no opening nor gap on his armor that exposed his skin. With a mere swing, he took down a charging dragon with his sword, and Eret who tried to attack him.

I stood up on my feet, and that apparently caught his attention. "Queen Anna?" He spoke behind his helmet in a low, raspy voice. Oddly, I sort of recognized his voice.

He lifted his helmet open, revealing a face that I hadn't seen in months, exactly since I agreed to sign a treaty with Therondia.

"General Magnus?" I asked. He was the General that was present with King Adam of Therondia when he arrived at Arendelle to sign the treaty. His mountain-like height was an attention-grabber during their arrival upon our land. He was simply the tallest and buffest man I've ever seen in my entire life.

"What are you doing in here?" He approached me slowly while dragging his sword. "Aren't you supposed to be in Arendelle?"

"You don't get to tell me where I should be!" I put on my shield and my inferno blade.

"Huh?" He looked at me weird, but then proceeded to chuckle. "Don't tell me you're with these guys? The Berkians?"

"Always have, always will," I replied.

"Such a shame. King Adam is on his way to Arendelle claim your land, too. I guess that's just gonna make life easier for us!" He put on his helmet back. "Time to meet your maker!"

He swung his sword from above. I jumped backwards once to avoid it, as it crashed the wooden floor. I needed to find a spot on his body to at least cause a cut on his skin big time, so while he was pulling out his sword, I ran to his back to see if there was any spot. However, before I could even get a good look, he swung his sword to me. I didn't see it coming, so I braced myself with my shield.

_CLANG!_

The impact threw me onto one of the cages, my back contacting against the bars of the cage.

"Ughh…" I grunted as I struggled to stand back up. While doing so, a dragon charged towards the general. The dragon bit the man by the arm and trashed it around recklessly. General Magnus amazingly freed himself from the bite with a punch to the dragon's face and cast the dragon off the ship with a single sweep of his sword.

I was taken aback by the man's strength. And when I discovered that my shield had a dent due to his sword, I was getting more and more consumed by fear, and he was aware if that. It didn't take an expert that he was no match for me. However, the only person there was to face him onboard was me, as the others were busy battling other Therondian soldiers and freeing the dragons.

General Magnus suddenly ran towards my direction. Seeing so, I ran off to flee from him. I pushed through the crowd of dragons and men until something big knocked me from behind, making me kiss the floor hard. When I glanced up, I discovered that the general had just thrown me a barrel to stop me. I took too long to get myself back up because of the pain. It didn't take long for the general to grab me by the neck and raised me up onto the air. I tried scratching his hand with my hand, bashing it with my shield, cutting it with my sword, all for the sake of breaking free, but nothing worked.

"EVERYBODY, STOP FIGHTING!" General Magnus exclaimed, the volume of his warning defeating the sounds of clashing swords and roars of dragons onboard. "OR I WILL KILL THE QUEEN OF ARENDELLE!"

I could tell everybody heard the warning, since the battle onboard suddenly halted. Every Viking turned their attention to us in worry, but the Therondians did it in a victorious manner.

"Good, finally some good fucking peace," he said. "You Vikings are so STUPID! Letting the queen of your valuable ally loose on the battlefield? BAHAHA!"

He suddenly tightened his grip around my neck to the point I was unable to breathe.

"Ack—"

"Queen Anna of Arendelle, I am your Algojo…" he stared into my eyes, tightening his grip more, "Who sadly won't give you the chance to speak your last words."

"GET OFF MY SISTER!"

I was ready to pass out when Elsa jumped onto the general, circling her legs around his neck. She recklessly pulled the helmet off of his head, very much exposing his face. I took the window and planted my blade into his temple. Once his grip around me loosened, I dropped onto the floor and collected my absent breath. While doing so, Lyrie came out of nowhere and rammed the general off the ship.

"You're okay?" Elsa asked as she knelt down in front of me to check me.

"I-I'm okay… Have the dragons been freed?" I looked up to see the surroundings.

"Last dragon is freed!" A voice exclaimed from the other end of the ship. I was sure it sounded like Fishleg.

"Alright!" Elsa stood up as she helped me doing the same. "The floor is lava, everybody!"

With that command, The Vikings hopped onto their dragons and commanded them to burn the floor before flying away. Luckily, the dragons who were merely spectating the entire scene joined the contribution by spitting flame onto the ship. We watched the Vikings fly to the next ship on the shopping list, which was docked on the west side of the island. I could tell from my perspective that the west side of the island was more crowded than the previous sides we've been.

"Anna, get on Lyrie, I gotta make sure everyone has got out," Elsa proposed as she pushed me to the dragon who was ready to take me on again. Of course, this kind of proposals would always arouse my suspicion, and this time was no exception.

"Promise me you'll be on your way within the next two minutes," I told her as I got on Lyrie. With that, I leaped onto the air again and she dashed off to the other side of the ship to check for any remaining allies.

After giving the ship a final glance, I looked up to my destination. I could see five motherships, all carrying cages of dragons, and the rest were warships and small boats that carried none. Even though we seemed to be outmatched in terms of the number, as we free a dragon, that's another fire-breather beast added into the team, who is very much capable of handling at the very least a dozen men. So, we had confidence.

We landed on another mothership. This time, I placed myself on freeing-the-dragons duty. After ramming a soldier off of the ship, I hopped on one cage that contained various looking dragons, all seemingly excited to get out and join the fight.

I grabbed out my torcher and started melting the hinge joint of the door. Since it was pouring with rain, I had to keep the flame under my hand as I slowly melted the metal. The harsh wind was not helping at all, too.

Then, I noticed the absence of my sister. I looked up to the sea and could nearly see nothing. I knew that she could take care of herself, but feeling worried was inevitable for me. Barely realizing that I was done with the joint, I moved to the second joint to completely open the cage, and kept my vision onto the sea again, waiting for any hint of an ice queen riding a horse made out of water.

Suddenly, the thunderous sky above emitted enough light for a split second, allowing me to spot the very figure I wanted to see. I saw my sister and Nokk coming onto the ship we were on from far away. However, during the split second, I saw something else, too. A giant figure crossed Elsa's path from the water. I didn't want it to be true but it seemed like a giant dragon. Right when the light of the lightning went out, my ears picked up a noise of something spewed from the same direction.

My lower jaw dropped at the sight. In my little heart I hoped for nothing bad, but the reality was different. Once more lightning spread across the sky, a giant dragon revealed itself, and so did its masterpiece in front of it; pillaring icicles resting against the cliff of the island. The most horrifying part was the fact that my sister was nowhere to be seen.

"Elsa?!" I called out. "ELSA!"

I made sure I was done with my own work before hopping off the cage and took a closer look onto the sea ahead. From the looks of it, the giant dragon must be the only one who made such icicles, as nothing else was around it. My mindset immediately shifted its priority to my sister.

"Lyrie! LYRIE!" I called for the Light Fury. I looked around but there was no presence of her. Landing out of nowhere, the Light Fury appeared behind me.

"Oh good, you know your name. Come on, Elsa is—"

_"_ _ROARRRRR—"_

_CRASH!_

I turned around to see a large splash on the water, and a part of the icicles made by the dragon had been shattered. I could only wonder what could've possibly caused such chaos since visibility was nearing zero at the moment, but I didn't as my mind told me that my sister could've likely died right in front of my eyes. So, I hopped on Lyrie again and signaled the dragon to fly towards the icy misery.

After approaching the mess, I discovered that the dragon that had spat the icicles had been somehow rammed by one of the Red Death's, as the Death was merely resting on top of the ice dragon. The Death had holes all over its wings, possibly the very cause of the ram. Since the two giants were resting on ice, the two were slowly taking water.

"Elsa!" I called her name.

"ELSAAA!" I called again with a louder voice. Of course, I earned myself no response. My mind told me that she could very well be caught inside the icicles.

I landed on one of the icicles. I slid my way down the icicle. Once reaching the base of it, I desperately tried to crack through it with my palms.

"E-Elsa…"

Tears began to build up on my shut eyes. I sensed Lyrie nudging me gently to keep my chin up, but I gently pushed her away.

_PHEW—BOOM!_

I looked up to the source of the blast and saw Toothless and Hiccup being chased by the last Red Death right on the split second when thunderbolt lighted the heaven. Even after the thunderbolt had ceased, I could see something lighting on the tail of Toothless, as if something was burning on it. Then, I remembered the dragon's tail, _prosthetic_ tail. The two seemed to have flown off onto the island as I kept track of them.

"I can't lose him, too," I hopped on Lyrie. "Come on!"

Lyrie leaped to the heaven once again. I kept my grip on the dragon steady as we climbed more altitude until finally reaching the top of the island. On the very far end of the island, I saw the Red Death landing, possibly near Vantage Point from where I was seeing.

I was desperate to make sure that I wasn't going to lose Hiccup, but I kept myself cool and collected as I signaled Lyrie to fly low and slowly.

"FIRE!"

A bola suddenly caught us midair, bringing us down into the woods below us.

"Agh! Ow! Fuck—yeouch!"

Once again, I kissed the ground. Though we may have scratched ourselves through the vines and branches of the trees, they actually softened our landing. Throughout the last hour or so, I had been tossed and cut and bruised, so I inevitably had to take my time to properly recover myself this time.

"Find the dragon! And the rider, too!"

"Aye sir!"

Hearing the command exhilarated my adrenaline right away. Under the nets of the bola, I began cutting them to break ourselves free with my blade. Along the process, Lyrie moaned weakly under the pouring rain.

"I hear you girl… I'm getting you out of this…" I assured. After cutting enough ropes, I uncovered ourselves from the bolas. I did a quick thorough check on Lyrie to make sure there was no serious wound. After finding none, I knelt in front of the dragon.

"Can you fly?" I asked, as if I was ever gonna receive a reply I'd understand. Out of the blue, Lyrie's eyes rolled away from me to something behind me. Before I could even find out what, the Light Fury jumped and spat a fireball.

"AGHH—" a pained cry sounded.

I turned around to see at least a dozen of Therondians through the trees. "Oh no… Whoa!"

Again, before I could even react, Lyrie made me sit on her back and leaped to the sky again. Luckily, the swift move was swift enough for us to escape the Therondians. However, up ahead, the Red Death was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh? Where did it go?" I asked myself. Once reaching the very spot the Red Death landed on, I motioned my body to sway to the right, signaling the dragon to fly in circle while I was carefully scanning the ground below.

"Where are you, Hiccup?—Oh, over there, Lyrie!"

I pointed below to tree that's been clearly stepped on by the Red Death, but it was not the tree that I was interested in. Seeing where to land, Lyrie landed right on the broken tree. I hopped off the dragon and grabbed the object that caught my eyes under the tree.

"Hiccup's… prosthetic leg…" I spoke to myself. I gasped upon the sight of stains of blood after rotating it to a different angle. My mind soon began to speculate of the worst possibility there was.

"No, no, no, it can't be—"

_THUMP!_

My foot sensed the ground shake as a large shadow overshadowed my own. I turned around and was greeted by the hot steaming breath coming out of the nostrils of the Red Death right in front of me. From on top of the head stepped down the man himself that very much suited the name of Drago Bludvist. I really couldn't imagine a better person to fit the name.

"His girlfriend, I assume?" He chuckled, stepping onto the bark, totally not fearing the hissing Light Fury near him.

"What did you do to him?!" I asked.

"Oh you know… the tail of a Red Death is capable of shattering a boulder his size into pieces… Imagine if it was him… and the Night Fury… just lying helplessly on the ground," he explained casually. My eyes widened to his detailed explanation. "Of course, being made out of metal, his peg leg would be the only thing left after such—"

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" I said as I desperately tried to reach his position. However, before I could even do so, Lyrie swept me with her tail away, creating a gap between me and Drago.

While regaining myself, I looked up to the dragon herself. "Lyrie, what the hell are you doing—"

I noticed something different on her. Her pupils are no longer the same dilated ones and were more snake-like. The Red Death was controlling her!

"Go," Drago spoke. With that, the Light Fury charged towards me. Once again, driven by adrenaline, I rushed my way away from the possessed dragon while holding Hiccup's peg leg. I entered the woods and began to move in zig-zag in hope that it would make a longer gap between us. I kept running and running until I was outside at a clearing, at Basin Point, to be exact.

"Basin Point…" I spoke to myself. The river up ahead was streaming harshly due to the heavy rainfall, and to cross it would be a suicide mission. I turned around and spotted the very silhouette of the Light Fury running through vines of the woods. I was cornered. I was either to face the dragon or make a leap into the river where God knows I would be ended up in.

"I'm sorry, Lyrie…"

I hopped into the river, and the rapid current immediately caught me. I tried my best to steer my way by moving by body about to avoid rocks, but I was failing miserably.

_Phew—boom!"_

A fireball suddenly exploded to my right. There was another one to my left. That's when I realized that Lyrie was airborne and was spitting fireballs to me.

"Lyrie! It's me! Anna!" I warned in desperation, but the dragon kept spitting fireballs at me. I was literally a sitting duck on the water. While keeping myself afloat, I spotted an entrance to a cave on the left river bank. With every power there was inside my muscles and being, I steered to the left, aiming for the mouth of the cave.

"Yes… yes… Yes!" I entered the cave. Right at that moment, a fireball landed on the top of the entrance, collapsing the rocks all over it and practically sealing the entrance since it was pitch black inside.

My eyes could not see anything in the darkness. All I knew was that the current took me downward and eased itself right on the moment I sensed dry level ground with my hand. I dragged myself with my arms to the drier part of the ground.

"Uhh… Agh…" I sat on the ground. I shoved my inferno blade out and lit the fire on it to meet the environment I was in. While recollecting myself, I discovered that I came out of a very small tunnel where the water was flowing from. The stream continued deeper into the cave that practically looked like a maze. Then it hit me.

"This is the… labyrinth… I'm trapped inside the labyrinth…"

I took my time to really organize my breathing. The labyrinth of New Berk was the last place I wanted to be trapped in in my life. And now, here I was.

"Okay… I just need to…" I took off my shield from my back, since it was too heavy for my current condition. Using the blade to support my own weight, I rose on my feet. Afterwards, I began to follow the stream, deeper into the labyrinth.

"Hiccup… please… I can't lose you…"

I examined the peg leg I still held dearly. Miraculously, the blood was still there, even after soaked by the rapid current of the river. I broke down even more.

"Elsa… You must've survived that… right?"

It's the very thing that I'd like to maintain; optimism. But the odds were unlikely, _too_ unlikely. The ice blast was mountainous, and it was hard to crack through.

"E-Elsa…" I collapsed on my knees and rested my body against a rock, planting my blade onto the ground.

"H-Hiccup…" I kept his prosthetic close.

My mind was not allowing me to make a physical move, seeing that the mind itself was not intact due to the recent events I had just witnessed. The thoughts of their deaths engulfed me as the fire on my blade slowly dimmed.


	27. Chapter 27

_**Five years ago** _

_**Anna's POV** _

_Years since Elsa shut me out, I could barely see her, let alone approach her. However, today, I was told that a foreign guest would arrive. Since our parents were no longer here with us, I suspected that Elsa, the soon-to-be-official queen, would welcome the guest and be on their service for whatever need they had._

_However, I woke up late today, and saw no glimpse of the guest nor my sister anywhere in the castle even after roaming around in it for an hour. But then, the thought of the most obvious guess of their whereabouts came to mind literally after seeing the door of the place itself; the office. Where else would they be?_

_The door of the office was shut, and I heard chatters inside. When I was about to grab the handle, I heard footsteps coming to the door. I quickly hid behind._

_Soon, the door opened and my sister waltzed out of it.  
_

_"Thank you again, Queen—I mean, Princess Elsa!" A male voice called from inside the room._

_Elsa turned around, about to reply but only to spot me in my 'hiding'. "O-Oh, you're welcome!" She replied before quickly making her way away from me. To prevent her from doing so, I jumped right into her track._

_"Whoa—"_

_"So! Where are they from?" I asked, placing my hands behind my back._

_"Anna... I have to go," she excused, as if she hadn't used that excuse for the thousandth time._

_She walked around me. "Oh come on, Elsa! It's not like I'm asking you to build a snowman with me!" I whined._

_Elsa stopped on her track before slowly turning to me. "... They're from an isle called Berk. They've come to form back the alliance father used to have back in the past. Kai told me that we would trade goods back then, until something happened in Berk that made us lose contact with the land for years."_

_"Berk?" I held my chin, growing curious. "I think I've read that name from the library... What happened in Berk?"_

_"Uh... dragons attacked them, but they told me they've learned to befriend the beasts..." Elsa said._

_The word made my eyes widen. "Dragons exist?"_

_"Apparently. Now, if you excuse me..." She turned around again, about to walk away._

_"Wait, Elsa!" I called. She turned around again to me, her expression screaming impatience this time._

_I smiled gratefully. "Thank you."_

_I never thought that I would see the sight again, but my sister returned my smile with the same thing. "You're welcome."_

_With that, Elsa resumed her postponed walk to wherever she desired. That was the longest conversation I've ever had with my own sister in years. It saddened me a bit, but at the very least, I did converse with my own sister. I really hoped that it was not going to be the last._

_Now, Berk._

_I slowly walked my way to the door of the office room and peeked. I saw a really large man with a fur cape and a thick beard and another man who's... pretty much the opposite. He was fairly skinny and had no beard. Or at least, not yet. The two were talking to Kai at the moment, until they noticed my very presence._

_"Oh, Princess Anna!" Kai called._

_I came out of hiding nervously to enter the room. "H-Hi Kai!"_

_The Berkians turned around to see me, allowing me to study them even further. "May I introduce you to our fellow old ally, fellow Berkians from the isle of Berk. This is Stoick the Vast, the chief," Kai gestured to the large man. "And his son, Hiccup Haddock."_

_The two bowed down to me. "Your Majesty," they said in unison. I bowed down in return._

_"No need to be formal to me, and Anna would be just fine," I addressed._

_Hiccup gave an uncertain look. "Are you sure?"_

_"Oh yeah, yeah," I waved it off. "I never knew we had an alliance with Vikings before."_

_"Oh, we did. It was during King Agnarr's reign..." Stoick explained. "To which, I am very sorry to hear. We never knew that..."_

_The remark brought a slight sorrow into my mind, but I quickly brushed it off. "Thank you. I appreciate it."_

_My eyes spotted something interesting on the table. Papers and papers of legal documents. "So... what's this all about?"_

_"Our agreement to trade fur with silver. Berkian sheep are... well, now that dragons are no longer hunting them, we've been able to raise them normally," Stoick explained as he gestured to a certain paper with Elsa's and his signature on it. His signature was in runic, interesting._

_"I take it that we used to do the same thing back then? Arendellian silver for Berkian wool?" I asked._

_"Correct," Kai replied. "And of course, there's more to it than just this very trade."_

_I grabbed my chin. "I see. Let's talk about the_ _dragons_ _though..." I emphasized. "They exist?"_

_"Ha! Let me correct that. How about, let's see the dragons?" Stoick offered. Right away, I was bought._

_"You brought a dragon to Arendelle?" I asked, getting more and more impatient. "Take me! I want to see it!"_

_"We brought some... Son? Why don't you take her to the boat and be her guide?" The father asked, nudging his son by the side._

_"What, me?" He asked._

_"I don't recall having another son," he replied. "I want to walk around the village, and perhaps into the woods. It's been a while since I last visited this kingdom."_

_Hiccup and I shared a glance. He looked nervous for a second. "O-okay. Um, Princess Anna, let's go then."_

_"Yes!"_

_We walked our way out of the castle towards the village. On our way to the main gate, it's been only me and Stoick who shared a conversation together, with Hiccup pretty much being a third-wheeler. I asked questions regarding their homeland to Stoick until he parted ways with us to somewhere else. Throughout the walk to the dock, Hiccup remained silent. His body language screamed awkwardness. I had a feeling that I had to break some ice to really get him comfortable around me, for whatever reason._

_"So, what's your name again?" I deliberately asked despite knowing it's Hiccup, just to break the ice between us._

_"Oh, uhm, Hiccup Haddock," he answered. "Nice to meet you—I mean, we've done that," he bit his tongue. "You get the point."_

_I chuckled at his attitude. "I do, indeed. How many dragons did you bring along the trip?"_

_"Um... that would be..." he briefly counted with his fingers, and he stopped at four raised ones. "Four dragons. Two are tidal ones that pulled our ships, the Seashockers, one is called a Night Fury, belonging to me, and the other is called a Rumblehorn, belonging to my dad."_

_"Oooh, cool names. Are they big?" I asked again._

_"Well... yeah. There are big dragons, there are small dragons."_

_"Can't wait to see them."_

_Once we're by the dock, I spotted right away the Viking-esque boats. There were two of them. Some Vikings were seen unloading crates of goods onto the dock, while the rest were checking on the crates themselves. One Viking waved a hand to us and Hiccup returned the gesture with the same thing._

_"Where's Toothless, Spitelout?" Hiccup asked._

_"Onboard. Currently having his afternoon nap," Spitelout replied._

_"Useless reptile," he commented. I inevitably snorted at the sass._

_"Is he?" I asked._

_"Is he what?" He asked._

_"A useless reptile?" I asked, snorting again._

_He smiled sarcastically, gesturing to a plank of wood that bridged the dock and the deck of the boat. "Kinda? Anyway, right this way, Your Maj—"_

_"It's Anna, Hiccup," I insisted, stepping on foot on the plank._

_"Anna. Right."_

_He followed me from behind before I jumped onboard the deck. Instantly, I heard a loud snoring to my right, and there it was. A dragon. It was large, black, and... was sleeping with his tongue out. Despite the funny state the dragon was in, the sight still sent chill up through my spine. Seeing the dragon behaving as so, Hiccup walked to the dragon with a body language that screamed embarrassment._

_"Toothless, wake up," he tapped the floor to wake the dragon up. That's when I realized that he had a prosthetic leg._

_The dragon woke up to the tapping, his eyes directed onto my presence right away._

_"Wow..." I spoke under my breath._

_"Anna, meet Toothless—waitttt, bud—"_

_The Night Fury walked towards me with eyes full of curiosity. Of course, I took steps backward in fear of the dragon harming me. Fortunately, Hiccup prevented the dragon from taking another step towards me by holding his head._

_"Now, now, gently," Hiccup said. "Anna, your hand, please?"_

_"My hand?" I asked._

_"Just... stay where you are, extend your hand, open it, and let him reach you," he instructed with a reassuring smile. Slowly as ever, I did as he instructed. Toothless slowly leaned in, giving my hand a sniff once close enough. However, I was too scared to look, so I bit my bottom lip and looked away._

_As if by magic, the fear lifted off once Toothless closed the gap between him and my hand. I turned to the dragon in disbelief. His scales felt incredibly smooth, totally the opposite that I had in mind._

_"Oh my words... You are one incredible dragon," I rubbed Toothless, leaning closer to the dragon. He seemed to welcome my rubbings and all._

_"And Toothless... meet Anna!" Hiccup introduced me._

_"This might very well be one of the best days of my life," I said as I gave the dragon a scratch by the jaw. I proceeded to circle the dragon around to examine him more thoroughly._

_"I... dare to say that it can get better," Hiccup said as he hopped on the dragon. He patted the spot behind him._

_"Care to join?"_

_My jaw dropped to the floor. "Are you sure?"_

_"More than sure," he said as he placed his peg leg onto a certain spot that was specifically designed to hold it._

_Without any more bickering, I hopped onto the dragon, consumed with excitement and anticipation._

_"Alright, just—"_

_I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind. "What's that?" I asked._

_"Uh... yeah, that was what I was going to say. Brace yourself, Your Majesty."_

_"It's Anna—" a click sounded as Hiccup shifted his peg leg, and Toothless expanded his wings upwards. With one push, the dragon and us leaped into the sky within a blink of an eye._

_"WHOAAAA!" I screamed on top of my lungs. The dragon spun as he climbed more and more altitude before finally stopping at a height that I screamed at. Arendelle looked so small from the clouds!_

_"OH MY GOD, WE ARE SO UP HIGH!" I exclaimed as I tightened my arms around Hiccup._

_"Ufft—is height one of your fears, by any chance?" Hiccup asked._

_"I... I think it is now?" I replied._

_"Okay, okay. I have the cure for that. Bud, let's fly low first," he instructed the dragon. The Night Fury did as he instructed. Slowly, we glided to the village while lowering altitude altogether. The sight of the princess of Arendelle flying on a dragon with a Viking was something that Arendellians did not see every day, so, of course, we attracted their attention right away._

_I waved my hand to those who pointed at us while laughing. "Hello! Hi everybody!"_

_We continued to fly in circle several times on the village until Hiccup directed Toothless to the fjord. "I hope you don't mind our dragons consuming some of your fish?"_

_I raised a brow. "What do you mean?"_

_He pointed forward to the water and I saw right away what he meant. I saw two two-headed dragons swimming together in the open water. Toothless lowered our altitude, low enough for his right wing to cut the water and low enough to be the noticed by the dragons. Toothless roared to the dragons, as if to call them. Responding to the call, the two aquatic dragons suddenly jumped from the water and glided on the air between us._

_"Oh my gosh!" I turned and turned to each dragon, not wanting to miss anything._

_"Seashockers, you said?" I asked Hiccup, slightly shouting because of the wind._

_"Yes! Seashockers! Thanks to them, we managed to shorten the time it took for us to reach Arendelle!" He replied._

_"Oh nice!" I replied. The Seashockers abruptly dived into the water again, splashing some to us in the process. To avoid more, Toothless gained a little more altitude._

_"Eh heh, sorry for the inconvenience!" Hiccup said as he dried himself off by shaking his arms around._

_"Inconvenience? Hiccup, this is refreshing!" I laughed as I extended both my arms out to really feel the wind. I heard a small hint of chuckle from the Viking._

_"All right. I need you to look down as we gradually go higher, okay?" He instructed. I was nervous but I nodded to the instruction. I kept my eyes on the view below and Hiccup directed Toothless to gain more and more altitude. Initially, I could only see the fjord, but as we progressed, the view became wider, until the whole Arendelle was in sight as well. It didn't take long as well until I realized we were in the clouds again. This time, I was not scared. Hiccup's 'cure' worked!_

_"How are you feeling?" He turned to me._

_"Well... this is officially the best day of my life, Hiccup. Thank you," I smiled to the Viking._

_"My pleasure, Anna," he replied._

_An idea popped inside my mind. "Hiccup, do you mind if we show the villagers Toothless? Maybe take some on a flight as well? I just don't want them to feel left out, ya know."_

_He stuck his bottom lip out. "Sure, but perhaps minus the flight. Not sure if I can take_ _everybody_ _up for a flight."_

_Saying a 'yes' internally, I punched the air after hearing his response. We slowly landed on the town square where our arrival was warmly greeted by my fellow Arendellians. All of them were drawn into the dragon but they still kept a distance they felt safe in between._

_"It's all right!" I said as I hopped off Toothless to approach some villagers. "He's a big sweetheart!"_

_After some convincing, I managed to pull three people to have a closer look to Toothless. After some more convincing and a cautious supervision from Hiccup himself, they finally touched Toothless right on very spot I did it! The presence of the dragon attracted more and more attention. There was no exception to anyone who was fascinated by and interested in the dragon; adults, elders, kids, teenagers, you name it._

_"Hiccup!"_

_We turned around to the source of the call and spotted Stoick with some of his fellow Vikings along with two Arendellian guards. But what caught our attention the most was the dragon behind them. It was larger than Toothless, had thick scales and looked fiercer. The crowds' attention soon turned to the other dragon's presence._

_"Oh hey dad! Going somewhere?" He asked._

_"Yeah, we're going to the woods. Do you want to come?" He offered._

_"Eh... I think I will stay. Kind of..." he turned to his dragon, who was 'socializing' with the villagers. "Busy here, I guess."_

_His father smirked. "Very well. I will be back by sunset," he waved a hand and continued his walk into the woods with his pack._

_With that, Hiccup turned his attention back to the attraction of the crowd to ensure safety. Two boys were eager to hop onto the dragon. After asking for the permission, Hiccup helped the boys hop on and signaled the dragon to give them a low flight around the village. The boys initially asked why Hiccup was not going with them, but before he could even answer, the Night Fury already leaped onto the sky._

_"Hahaha..." Hiccup chuckled lowly, watching the dragon fly off with the boys._

_"They will be okay, right?" I asked the Viking._

_He smirked. "Fifty-fifty?"_

_My eyes widened at his mischievous side. "Hiccup!"_

_"I'm kidding! He's done this in the past."_

_I kept my eyes on the flying Night Fury. The boys on the dragon seemed to be enjoying their time as they 'whoo'ed in the entire time._

_"So how did you guys... befriend a dragon? I suppose 'tame' would not be the correct word since Toothless... I don't know, correct me if I sound like a total smarty-pantsy, but he sees you more like a friend rather than an owner," I explained._

_"Well, you would be correct. We're best friends," he smiled._

_"I wish I could have a dragon as a bestie," a random girl said. Hiccup knelt down to meet her level._

_"Well, you could! Dragons are wonderful! They are intelligent!" Hiccup said._

_"Don't they eat men and women?" A random man asked._

_"No, they don't. They mostly eat fish, and sometimes sheep. But we've kept them from eating our sheep, so, mostly fish," he explained._

_"How do you tame one?" Another random person with another question popped out. Soon, they began to shoot more and more questions, and I could tell that Hiccup was getting overwhelmed by the amount of questions he was getting fired at. I decided to help the guy out._

_"Okay, everybody! Time's up! We have some diplomatic mission to attend. Sorry!" I pulled Hiccup by the shoulder away from the crowd. I saw a glimpse of relief on his face right away. Toothless, who had just landed with the two boys, followed his companion along._

_"Thanks for that," he sighed in relief._

_"No problem," I crossed my arms proudly. We proceeded to walk in the town. With Toothless on our side, many heads still turned to our direction as we walked by, inevitably. But it was better than being swarmed with endless questions._

_"So now, you're my tour guide and I am your tourist?" He asked, totally not sounding obvious at all._

_"I mean, I can take you around," I offered with a smile._

_"Oh please do. Arendelle seems..." He looked around. "Well, so much in order, compared to Berk."_

_"Ehh, I don't think so. Perhaps it's just your understanding of 'in order' that is different to me. A kingdom doesn't have to look like this to give the impression that it is 'in order'," I argued. "I'm sure Berk is fine as well. I mean, you have dragons!"_

_He smiled to me. "Right. You're the tour guide, after all."_

_"Hiccup, if you don't mind... can I ask some more about the dragons, again, if you don't mind?" I asked._

_"I don't mind the questions. I'd be happy to answer all of them, but I just need the time to answer them one by one," he shrugged._

_"Okay. How did you befriend Toothless, exactly? I'd imagine the dragons were not just friendly from the very beginning like puppies," I crossed my arms._

_"Well... that brings us back two years ago. Would you believe me if I said that I was the first Viking to ride a dragon?" He asked with a proud and showing-off tone, though it was done just for the sake of fun._

_I smiled challengingly. "I don't know. I will decide on that. Go on."_

_With that cue, he explained the story of how he found Toothless after shooting him down. While explaining so, Toothless seemed to be annoyed by the remark for whatever reason. The dragon literally slapped the Viking's butt when Hiccup was in the middle of explaining how he made the artificial wing for Toothless' tail wing. Right away, I was drawn interested. Later, he explained how he shared his time between faking his performance in the dragon fighting academy and taking care of Toothless._

_"And later, I found out that dragons hate eels. Well, to be fair, I hate them too—oh, where does this lead to?"_

_He pointed to a path that would take straight shot to the hill where Mother and Father's grave were located. That reminded me, I hadn't changed the flowers of the graves in a while. Perhaps, this was the perfect time, knowing Toothless could just take us straight onto the hill._

_"Oh... that would lead to the grave of my parents," I answered. Hiccup's eyes widened immediately at my response._

_"I'm sorry, I didn't know—"_

_"It's okay! In fact, can I ask you a favor? I need to change the flowers on their stones. It's been a while since I last did. Could you take me up there on Toothless? And we'll continue your story afterwards," I requested._

_Hiccup seemed hesitant initially, but he nodded eventually. "Okay. I'd be happy to."_

_"Great, just, let me buy some flowers first," I said as I dashed off to the nearest flower shop. After getting some, I returned to Hiccup, who was already ready to take me on. I made sure I had a good grip on Hiccup before we leaped to the sky again._

_From ground, the giant stones of my parents' graves were not visible. But after gaining altitude easily on a dragon, they were visible right away. However, something else was visible, too. A person, wearing a cloak and an Arendellian guard along with his horse._

_"I guess there's an Arendellian paying respect to your parents, at the moment?" Hiccup asked, apparently looking at the same thing as I was._

_"Yeah... but who could it be?" I asked._

_We landed right behind the person in the cloak. Our landing immediately attracted their attention, but even after turning to see me, I still had a hard time figuring out who it really was as he or she kept half of their face covered._

_"Princess Anna?" The Arendellian guard asked._

_I hopped off Toothless. "Who is this?"_

_"She is... um..."_

_"Don't!" The person cut. It was a feminine voice I was most fond of._

_"Elsa?" I asked, approaching her._

_"N-No! I mean, no?" She tried changing her voice. "I am not E-Elsa!"_

_"You're not fooling anyone, sis. But it's okay! I see that..." I looked down to the flowers she had placed by herself. "You've come here to do the same thing I want to do! I brought flowers, too, see?" I showed her the flowers I bought for the occasion.  
_

_Looking slightly irritated and totally not at the flowers I showed, Elsa revealed her face fully. "It's not that... I mean, yes, I've come here to see them. But I can't be anywhere close to you, Anna."_

_I approached her closer. "Why not? Come on! When else do we get the chance to see our parents together like this?"_

_She turned her back on me. "I just... can't," she said, nodding to the guard. The guard hopped on his horse and Elsa after him. My heart ached to see my own sister doing this to me for whatever reason she had._

_"Do you not want our parents see us together for once? To feel that the presences of their daughters are near them?" I asked with a rather harsh tone. My sight became blurry with tears afterwards._

_She rolled her eyes to me, but only to roll them away after so. "David, go. Hurry."_

_"Hyah!"_

_With that, the horse galloped downhill, passing Hiccup and Toothless nonchalantly. That's when I remembered that they were here with me._

_"Hiccup... I'm sorry you had to see that..." My voice cracked. "It's just... she's all I have... but yet... she... Harghhhh!" I groaned in annoyance, trying to break free from the need to cry in front of Hiccup. To clear the mess on my face, I forced myself to find the ground an interesting sight to behold. While doing so, Toothless came to my sight, looking concerned over me. He grumbled lowly, as if he was expressing worry._

_"What?" I asked with a smile. "I'm fine, Toothless. Geez, dragons can detect sadness?"_

_"And happiness. And other emotions, really," Hiccup answered. I looked up to him in surprise. This really emphasized more on how intelligent dragons are._

_"They really can?" I asked._

_"Yeah."_

_**Two years ahead** _

_"Elsa? Elsa!"_

_"Queen Elsa, where are you?"_

_"Elsaaa!"_

_Queen Elsa of Arendelle, missing in the isle of Berk while attending a Viking funeral. It oddly felt like the time she had stormed off to the North Mountain and left a blizzard on Arendelle. But this time, it's minus the blizzard, fortunately._

_We, Arendellians, had come to Berk to see the current state of the isle after forming back our alliance two years ago. Since Elsa had revealed her power (though how it happened was against her wishes), I was granted with the very thing that I wished to have in this life; herself. Now that she has nothing to hide, we've been the closest sibling in the world._

_Though, ironically, we were so distant to one another at the moment. God knows if she's still in Berk._

_It was our final day of three days stay here in Berk. We were supposed to sail back to Arendelle hours ago, but our queen had gone missing while attending a Viking funeral to a fallen Berkian that went by the name of Eivor. The funeral was supposed to be the last activity we would do before departing._

_Now that we had swept clear the village, the woods were our next place to sweep. All Arendellians, accompanied by some Berkians and their dragons, set off to search for my sister. But so far, no luck. The sun was setting and the woods could be dangerous._

_"See anything, Toothless?" I asked the dragon who had been my partner in the search. The dragon shook his head as in a 'no'. Dragons really are intelligent creatures._

_"Huft... I'm tired of walking..." I complained to myself, arching my back forward while stretching my legs. Before I could continue searching, Toothless made me sit on his back while walking._

_"Awe, thanks bud," I scratched the dragon by the neck._ _"Now, let's go again—"_

_"Everybody, I brought Skullcrusher."_

_The whole search party, including me, turned around to see Hiccup on the back of Skullcrusher, his father's dragon. I raised a brow, finding his exclamation odd and not useful to the search._

_"So?" I asked._

_"He's the best tracker on the island. He has picked up her scent. I used the remaining of her magic. Now he's leading us to somewhere solid, I can tell," he explained reassuringly._

_"Oh okay. Why didn't you just take him out since the beginning of the search?" I asked._

_"He was feeding himself. And I do not have the courage to disturb a Rumblehorn's meal," he said as he and the dragon walked past us. I took it that a Rumblehorn was not the happiest dragon species if they were to have their meal interrupted. Having no lead more solid than the 'scent' Hiccup used, the search party followed Hiccup's lead._

_Toothless walked alongside Skullcrusher, who was busy sniffing the air, the vines, the trees, all for the search of a scent similar to my sister. All of us merely watched the dragon in full anticipation. When the dragon sniffed a particular tree bark, he exhaled an air out of the blue; it's something that he hadn't done previously. This time, the dragon circled the bark, sniffing the object more carefully and thoroughly._

_"Is he onto something?" I asked Hiccup._

_"Definitely," he confidently replied._

_"Roar!"_

_The Rumblehorn suddenly dashed off to a certain direction away from us. This could be it!_

_"Toothless, go!" I commanded, and he did as so. He ran to follow the tracker dragon deeper into the woods. Soon, I could see a clearing right through the trees. Skullcrusher 'leaped' into the clearing, away from our visual. Once reaching the clearing, that's when I realized that it was a cove. And there she was, sitting on a rock by a pond. My sister._

_"Elsa!" I called._

_Toothless hopped into the cove to approach the used-to-be-missing Queen of Arendelle. Once realizing my presence, Elsa dashed to my direction and crashed herself on me._

_"Goodness, where have you been?" I asked worriedly, caressing her hair in our hug._

_She pulled away, frowning. "I'm sorry... the funeral just heavily reminded me of mama and papa. I... snuck away from the funeral. Little did I know, I brought myself into the wilderness while entrapped in my own head."_

_"Awh, Elsa," I hugged her again. This time, I made sure it was tighter and warmer. When I opened my eyes, that's when I noticed that the boys, Hiccup, Toothless, and Skullcrusher, were merely watching. Hiccup raised his thumb with a smile, probably finding the sight relieving. Even I could see that the dragons were finding the sight of me hugging my sister was heartwarming, judging from their 'expression'._

_"There she is!"_

_"Oh finally, she's here!"_

_We turned to see Arendellian guards and the Berkians who joined the search joining us in the cove. Soon, we were circled by them all. "Queen Elsa, are you hurt?" Commander Fitzgerald asked._

_"I am fine, thank you, Fitzgerald," Elsa replied._

_"Where have you been, Your Majesty?" Sergeant John asked._

_"I um... I was..." Elsa tried to find the words. "I got lost."_

_"Lost?" He asked, not seeming to buy her response._

_"Yeah. Um, that's all there is to it. I mean," Elsa turned to Hiccup. "By all means, I mean no disrespect to our fallen Berkian whatsoever by leaving the funeral so abruptly. Truly, I don't."_

_"I understand," Hiccup replied. "What matters is that you're now safe."_

_Elsa smiled at Hiccup's understanding. He must've heard her true excuse, after all. "Thank you."_

_"So, I'm pretty sure you're all behind schedule. Best we bid farewell now?"_

_**A year ahead** _

_Blue, the messenger Terrible Terror, arrived this morning with a letter that said that they would arrive today. But night has fallen and there has been no sign of any ship on the far horizon. Usually, when a letter arrived, the Berkians would arrive only hours later, not an entire day later. God knew if they would even arrive tonight._

_It's been_ _months_ _since I last saw Hiccup. We would trade goods every once in three months, and the last three shipments, Hiccup had not been present with the delivery, not to mention they've been behind schedule, too. Today's letter didn't mention whether or not Hiccup was a part of the delivery party, sadly. I secretly hoped that he was. I longed to see my good friend._

_Once again, I gave the letter another read. Since Vikings wrote in runes, their handwriting skills in writing alphabetical symbols were not the best in the world, but it was still legible._

_"Dear Queen Elsa and Princess Anna,_

_We are writing this as we are sailing our way to your kingdom with the goods. We hope that we are to arrive within the next hours or so._

_Thank you."_

_That was it. I looked up to the view of the fjord that my bedroom's window provided. Still nothing. No ship, no dragon, no nothing._

_I yawned loudly. In the process, my eyes became watery simply because how sleepy I was. The clock on the wall read that it was nearing two in the morning. It surprised me to see that I had been waiting for this long._

_"All right... I should just call it a day..." I scrunched my eyes to clear my vision. I gave the view ahead of me a final look. Out of the blue, literal blue, a small speck was emerging from the horizon._

_"Huh?"_

_I had nothing to rely on to give the odd object a closer look, so I relied on my very own eyes. I focused on the speck for a good minute or two until I realized that it was a ship._

_"That must be them!" I spoke to myself. With that, I rushed out of my bedroom, not caring to the fact that I was still in my sleeping gown. I dashed through the corridors, the stairs, and out to the stable to grab my horse, Molly. She was asleep, so I gently knocked on the door of the stable to wake her up._

_"Molly?" I asked._

_She didn't wake up. I knocked the door once again, but a tad harder._

_"Molly? Psst!"_

_The horse finally peeled her eyes open. She looked at me with a confused look._

_"I'm really sorry to disturb your sleep!" I said as I opened the door to her stable. "But I need you to take me to the dock!"_

_The horse blew a raspberry._

_"Oh come on, I'll give you a good breakfast later on. Promise!" I patted the horse by the neck. Only after some stretching did she finally come out of the stable willingly. Once putting on the harnesses and the saddles, I jumped onto the horse and off we went to the dock. The guards by the main gate, of course, questioned my motivation of leaving so early and so abruptly. Once they heard the name 'Berkian', they let me out of the gate right away._

_"Hyah!"_

_With that cue, and a little bit of a kick, Molly accelerated on the bridge and into the village. It was 2 o'clock in the morning, so nobody was around, obviously. It didn't take that long for me to reach the dock. By the time I hopped off, I realized that the gap the ship had closed was so much, it was already through the watergate._

_Stump!_

_A loud stump sounded from my far right. Luckily, the bright full moon was there to back me up when I was figuring out who it was. To no one's surprise, it was a dragon rider and his dragon. Toothless and Hiccup!_

_"Hiccup! Toothless!" I called, rushing my way to his spot._

_He turned around to me and grew a smile. "Anna?"_

_"Eh he he!" I giggled along while running until I crashed myself into his open arms. Toothless didn't want to be left out, so he nudged us to join in. I gave the dragon the pets he deserved._

_"I miss you..." I spoke softly, pulling away._

_"You do?" He raised a brow, smiling challengingly._

_"Am I not allowed?" I asked in the same manner._

_"Heheh, I miss you, too, Anna," he replied and pulled me into another brief hug. "I'm sorry that the latest shipments have been... off schedule and... I haven't been able to visit as regularly as I would've liked to. Something happened in Berk, and we're not really in the best shape, per se."_

_I was colored interested right away. "What happened?"_

_He was about to reply, but a yawn came out of his mouth instead._

_"Oh, you need to sleep. It's super late, anyway," I quickly said._

_He looked up to me after scrunching his eyes. "Yeah... I think I do... just need to make sure the ship is docked correctly before that," he looked behind to see the ship approaching to dock on an empty spot between two ships, which I recalled belonged to the Therondians._

_Hiccup turned to me again. "Here's a hint of the story. A madman with a dragon army. Sounds interesting?"_

_My eyes widened at every single word of the hint. "Oh wow. This can't be good."_

_He shook his head. "It is not. Wait, why are you even up this late? Have you been waiting for me?"_

_I smiled cheekily. "I might have?"_

_He pointed his index finger at me. "Sleep, princess," he turned around to walk to his ship. "Good night, Anna."_

_"Good night, Hiccup!"_

_**Present time** _

"Elsa... Hiccup... What do I do?"

The fire on the blade was finally out. My eyes saw nothing but utter darkness. I could only hear the gentle stream beside me and feel the rocky ground beneath me. I laid my head against the rock to face the ceiling of the cave, tears building up on my eyes.

_"I've seen dark before, but this is darker._

_This is vicious, this is brute, this isn't fair._

_The life I knew is over, the lights are out._

_Hello, darkness, take me this instance."_

I tightened my grip on Hiccup's prosthetic.

_"I follow you around, I always have._

_Yet you've gone again beyond my very reach._

_This pain, it kills me, please end this now._

_This tiny voice, whispering in my mind."_

_"You are lost, hope is gone_

_It is time to go on_

_And do the next right thing—"_

I stuttered at the phrase, feeling an immense doubt. I tried to overcome the doubt by grabbing my blade to stand up. Almost like I was an elderly, it took me a moment to really stand on my feet again before replacing the fuel canister of the blade. With the blade lit, I regained my sight of the environment I was in.

_"Though is there really... 'a next right thing?'_

_I don't know anymore, it's all blank._

_I can't find my direction, I'm all alone._

_The only star that guided me is gone."_

I began to walk forward, to whichever direction my feet were taking me to.

_"I must rise from the floor,_

_but to no one I'm rising for._

_It just seems impossible._

_Take a step,"_ I felt my heart ached to the thought of my very possible loss. _"Oh it hurts."_

_"This even I can barely do,_

_the next right thing."_

Once again, the thought of my loved ones haunted me.

_"I cannot keep my chin up,_

_it's too much for me to take."_

My aimless walk brought me to a steep waterfall with steep ledges on either side. The only way down would be sliding along it.

_"Even if I break it down to this next step,_

_this next choice, I still question what for?"_

I slid myself along the sledge and landed hard on the other end. Right when I landed, I lost grip of Hiccup's prosthetic as it fell into the stream.

"No!"

I hopelessly watched it being carried by the current, away and away from me. My heart ached even more.

_"Do I... walk... through this night,_

_stumbling blindly toward the light,_

_And do the next right thing?"_

I used my blade to stand up again. Once again, I continued my aimless, and possibly tailless, walk.

_"And with the dawn... what comes then?_

_When it is too clear that not one dawn will ever rise again?!"_

Suddenly, I noticed that the fire of the blade was slowly dimming again. I checked the canister inside the handle and discovered that it was only a quarter filled.

 _"If you two are gone... my precious,_ _precious_ _, world..._

_Why do... the next... right... thing?"_

Once again, the fire was out, and darkness consumed me.

**I'm sorry for being a day behind the schedule. Yes! This is my take on Anna's song, "The Next Right Thing." I made it darker so it would fit with the scene. What do you think? Yes, some parts might be awkward, but I made sure the amount of syllables fit with the song.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hiccup's POV**

"Come on, is that the best you can do?!"

Taunting the gigantic beasts, I directed Toothless to fly into the clouds. On my six, there were the two Red Deaths, both consumed in rage for me and my pissing behavior. My last move, however, did free the dragons from their telepathic grasp, allowing them to fly away. My job, as for now, was to distract them and hope that I could come up with a plan to get rid of them.

Once inside the thundering clouds, I noticed that it was somehow a tad brighter compared to being under them, and it was dry! As swiftly as possible, but also as soundlessly as possible, Toothless hid us inside a dark cloud. Hidden away, we turned around to see our companies.

The Red Death's quickly breached the clouds and stopped once they noticed our absence. Having eyes more than a pair, the Red Deaths needn't to look around as their eyes were already around. Drago, however, had to look to different directions, seemingly growing irritated as time passed.

"COME OUT! I DON'T FEAR YOU!" He warned.

"I'm sure you don't, old pal…" I whispered. "All right bud, our plan is…" I watched the two Death's hovering, trying to find an idea as I was going. Then one popped out, an _old_ idea.

"Oh, Toothless. Just like old times, remember?" I looked into his eyes. The dragon took in what I just said for a moment before managing to recall what it was all about, which was signed with a gummy grin.

"Atta boy, try to aim for Drago occasionally," I patted the dragon. "Go!"

Toothless accelerated into the open air away from the Red Death's. He and I had the same idea; to build up a momentum in hope for bigger and more devastating damage. Once far enough, Toothless braked with his wings and kicked the air with one flap before folding them in half to act as a steering. The immense speed we carried was actually too much for me, so I could only open my eyes by half.

My eyes saw nothing but clouds after clouds, occasionally seeing the silhouettes of the Red Death's growing larger as we approached if lightning emitted out of the clouds. My ears heard nothing but the washing noises of the harsh wind against us. My skin sensed nothing but the coldness of the air, having been soaked under the rain and now brushed against cold air. Despite the harsh environment, I remained focus on my target.

Within a split second, the clear view of the giant dragons came to view, who were still clueless of our whereabouts.

"NOW!"

With the command, Toothless spat a plasma blast towards the wing of one of the Red Death's.

_Phew—BOOM!_

Being a sitting duck, the plasma blast hit hard. The dragon roared loudly in pain, and we were nowhere near the desire to stop.

After passing the dragons at a blinding speed, Toothless turned around to make another pass. In pretty much the same blinding speed, Toothless spat another blast towards the wing of the dragon. After doing so, we turned around for another pass. The cycle went on and on for another good five hits, all aimed evenly for both dragons, until I remembered about Drago.

"Alright Toothless, let's try to go for Drago this time," I patted the Night Fury. He roared once in response. Once again, Toothless braked on the air with his wings and turned around to make another pass. As we approached the Red Death's, we relied on the lightning to measure our distance since their lighting revealed their exact position through the silhouettes. But out of nowhere, we saw not the usual silhouettes at the very last second, but a large fireball.

"Watch out!" I shifted the positioning of Toothless tail fin, but it was too late. Toothless braked our speed by expanding his wings to avoid making contact with whatever was inside the fireball. But we carried too much speed and the consequent of that came into realization as we hit something inside the fireball that I assumed was the tail of one of the Red Death's.

Recovering from the contact, I regained control over my Night Fury and looked behind to see the Red Death's onto us. We were diving into the earth, so I shifted Toothless' tail fin to control altitude. As we were doing so, we breached through the clouds again and into under the harsh rain once again. The sight of the Therondian ships came to view, and a fraction of them were consumed in fire, a clear sign that my people were putting in some work.

"Good job boys and girls… oh—"

I saw a hint of white dorsal fins cutting through the water, which heavily reminded me of the other titan dragon that I hadn't taken care of.

"The Bewilderbeast… how could I forget?!" I spoke to myself.

_"_ _GROAR!"_

One of the Red Death's roared from behind, which happened to be the one Drago was standing on. With a quick glance, I looked at the Bewilderbeast below, which was swimming its way towards the fleet of ships. It was most likely going to interfere the work of my fellow Berkians by controlling the dragons, and I could not allow that.

"Let's see if I can hit three birds with one stone," I spoke to myself, shifting the flight gear to ascend into the clouds once again. The Red Death's followed my lead into the clouds, back into our old playground. But this time, they kept the gap between us close, close enough to not lose track of our whereabouts. Toothless tried breaking free, but the Red Death's were so good in keeping themselves close.

At least, that's what I thought, that the two were onto us. Out of nowhere, while zigzagging on the air to flee, one of the Death's materialized out of thin air in front of us, its jaw opened widely to welcome us.

"TOOTHLESS!"

Shifting the flight gear, Toothless turned to the right drastically to avoid the jaw of death. But it was all executed a fraction too late; within a blink of an eye, it was all suddenly pitch black. That's when I discovered that I was inside the mouth of the Red Death.

"OH HOLY THOR—WE NEED TO GET OUT!" I screamed in panic, as I had never experienced such bizarre experience. The tongue of the dragon pressed us to the top, making it harder for us to move around. Then a distinct smell of the flammable fume materialized inside the mouth of the dragon, building up on the base of the dragon's throat.

"Toothless, it's now or never!" I said to the dragon. Hearing the command, Toothless charged plasma inside his mouth. But the clock was ticking, and the two dragons were racing to prep their flammable inside their jaws.

_BOOM!_

Within a split second, Toothless and I were finally out of the jaw of the Red Death. We were coated in saliva, so we did barrel rolls on our way to get rid of them.

"Ugh! No more of that in the future, please," I pleaded to whoever out there that listened. We wanted to take our time, but the Red Death's didn't allow us. Once again, the chase continued. The Red Death's followed our lead as we kept climbing altitude in hope that at one point that the air would be thin enough for the giant dragons with their giant lungs. Luckily, at the last minute, I came up with an idea.

We kept climbing and climbing. "Toothless, prepare to break," I warned the dragon, and he nodded, already knowing what the command was. As we were breaking through the last layer of clouds, I pulled Toothless up and he folded his wings. Once the Red Death flew past us, Toothless grabbed one of the fins on the back of the giant dragon and held on.

The Death's broke through the highest layer of the cloud, where peaceful was defined. The full moon, the sea of stars; it really was the type of scenery that you'd expect the last in times like this. Right away, the Red Death's were confused by the absence of our presence.

"Stay low…" I whispered to my dragon. "Creep along, see if we can reach its head and give it a good hit…"

With that instruction, Toothless crept on the spine of the dragon towards the head as gently as possible. I kept my eyes on the surroundings to see if the other dragon has spotted us or not.

"Good, good," I complimented the dragon as we progressed. Right when we were about to reach the neck of the dragon, Drago spotted us from the other dragon.

"There you are!" He exclaimed. Seeing that we were compromised, Toothless planted his teeth on the neck of the dragon and blasted off plasma. The explosion sent us flying, but it was a good hit, considering the giant dragon lost control briefly.

"Yeah! How about that?!" I taunted the dragon as I directed Toothless to dive into earth. Growing pissed by my actions, the Death's dived into earth as well, chasing me and Toothless.

"This is it, Toothless," I signaled the dragon. I looked behind to see the Death that had no maniac riding on top of it closing it onto us, eyes very much locked onto the Night Fury.

"Hold, Toothless…" I instructed. Seconds later, the signal came; that distinct whirring noise that dragons make while charging a flame breath.

"NOW!"

The Night Fury turned around and spat a plasma blast right into the dragon's mouth, particularly where flammable fume was building up. Within an instance, the dragon's mouth caught on fire.

Since we were diving into earth, the sight of the sea greeted us soon enough. My calculation was perfect! We were diving into the direction of the swimming Bewilderbeast; who had weirdly spat some ice into the island for some reason. Seeing that we were running out of altitude, Toothless immediately spun his body around and gained control of our maneuver. The Red Death wanted to do the same to control its dropping altitude, and it did so by expanding its wings. However, when it did so, the wings ripped open, since we'd done some damage onto it previously. Conveniently, the Death landed right into the Bewilderbeast.

We glided on the sky, taking everything in for a brief moment. It was quickly interrupted when a breath of flame consumed us for another brief moment. I was well protected by my dragon scale armor, but its heat was still unbearable. As quickly as possible, we flew out of the fireball, but I quickly sensed something off, something imbalanced.

I looked around and found the problem on the rear. Toothless' artificial tailfin; it's burning.

"We might need to call an emergency landing soon!" I said to Toothless. We flew onto the island while keeping up with our imbalance proportion. Obviously, our movement was seen by Drago and the remaining Red Death, as the fire on Toothless' tail was like a beacon under the dark harsh rain.

Eventually, the imbalance was too much; Toothless lost control of himself. I tried my best to direct us to the softest spot on the land that I could find. The trees seemed to be the most reasonable choice there was, so I steered my dragon into the trees.

Through the vines and leaves we crashed into earth. It was mostly inconvenient to do something like this, but we were fortunate to be able to land on solid ground.

"You okay bud?" I hopped off the Night Fury and checked all over him. I found nothing too serious, luckily. With my dragon checked over, I checked over the place we were ended up in. We were in a small opening inside the woods, which initially suggested me that we were somewhere in New Raven point. However, I quickly made another suggestion as I noticed the presence of a large boulder just ahead of us. It was no ordinary boulder; it was the Troll's Boulder!

"If there's been no landslide or anything… the entrance should be here, ah ha!" I snapped a finger when I saw an opening just under the boulder's right side. It was another entrance that would lead to the labyrinth of the island.

"I think we can outsmart him by…" I looked up to look for any sign of a flying Red Death, which happened to be the very first thing that came to view. It was landing right on top of us with its destructive tail aimed right onto us.

"TOOTHLESS, GET IN, QUICKLY—"

_CRASH!_

**Elsa's POV**

"Ugh…"

I struggled to stand up. Luckily, Nokk was there to help me out. With his head, he gently lifted my upper half to into a standstill. However, I quickly dropped on my knees again as a pain stung me by the ankle. That's when I realized that I had a bruise there. At least, after I summoned frosts to illuminate the place I was in and the bruise on my ankle.

"Yeah… Nokk, I'm gonna need you to help me out, I can't walk…" I looked up to the environment I was in. I was inside a cave. Whatever hit me and Nokk had sent us flying into the mouth of the cave that was apparently on the wall of the island's cliff. I turned around to see the entrance of the cave to see where I came from but saw nothing but a pile of boulders, as if a great force had sealed the entrance.

"A cave… inside the island… is this the labyrinth?" I asked. Though Nokk was the only living being around, he didn't respond. He almost seemed as lost as I was.

"Stay with me, okay?" I patted the horse by the neck and turned him into snow to allow him to stay on dry land longer, though the interior of the cavern was mostly moist. There were puddles and mosses everywhere. But the most terrifying sight was the selections of paths there were for us to choose. One might lead to a dead end and one might lead to another entrance. Either way, I had to make a choice soon.

I hopped on Nokk and kept an ice crystal above our heads to brighten the area. "We should move fast."

With that, Nokk and I moved deeper into the cavern. The air was incredibly humid since we were near the sea, which made the experience more horrid than it already was. Not to mention the darkness, the tight space caused by the abundance of stalagmites, and the slippery mosses. Nokk had moments where he nearly slipped.

As we proceeded deeper, it was getting clearer that we were lost. At least a good one hour had passed and we've only been getting ourselves more lost than ever. The path that I had chosen had apparently led the two of us up and up, considering that we did many steep climbing. Luckily, Nokk was agile with his jumps. I just followed my intuition to climb to the top of the island no matter which path I took.

After many more jumping, my ears picked up a sound of a nearby stream. A perfect timing for my dry throat.

"Follow the sound of the stream," I instructed Nokk with a pat on his neck. Understanding the command, the water spirit bobbed his head and focused his hearing as we went on. Eventually, there it was, a small gentle stream.

I initially wanted to hop off, but then I remembered the sprain on my ankle. To help me out, Nokk sat down on the ground once near the stream, allowing me to reach the ground more safely. By the stream, I knelt down and cupped my hands to collect the water. I gave it a quick taste before I drank them all.

"Oh goodness, this is heavenly," I spoke to myself. The water was fresh and cold, just what I needed. Clearly, my throat demanded more. As I was about to cup more water, I spotted something on my vision.

Across the stream, the terrain was unlike the side Nokk and I were on. Ours was rocky and mossy, but across was muddy and less rocky. On the mud itself, I saw footprints.

"Wait..."

I planted my hands on the bottom of the stream and focused my power on the water.

"Show me the past..."

It's been a while since I last did the trick, but after opening my eyes, I saw my magic slowly forming a sculpture across the stream. As it slowly materialized, it became obvious of what the flurry of ice was forming. Hiccup! And Toothless!

Hiccup seemed to be mending something on his... Missing leg with the water. He didn't have his prosthetic on. Toothless, on the other hand, was merely watching his buddy treating his leg.

"Sorry bud, you're gonna have to carry me around this time," Hiccup said to his dragon, in which he replied with an unwilling grumble.

"Oh don't be so dramatic. Let's go."

And it stopped.

Nokk and I shared a glance after watching the short memory. My mind suspected that It could've only occurred minutes ago, though it came up with no explanation regarding how those two were ended up in the labyrinth.

The water spirit helped me stand up as we made our way across the stream. I knelt down once again, but to check the track on the muddy ground. There was Toothless' track, and it still looked fresh. They couldn't be far.

"It's still fresh!" I looked up, "Hiccup!" I called, and my call echoed through the cavern.

"Let's go, Nokk," I hopped on the water horse once again and he proceeded into the direction of what we assumed the direction where Hiccup and Toothless had gone to.

"Hiccup?" I called once again. The only thing that replied was the same echo of my own voice.

"... Elsa?"

It was faint, but it was more than enough.

"Hiccup!" I replied. Right away, Nokk picked up some speed and galloped deeper into the cavern.

"Elsa!"

Having heard the voice from a relatively close distance, Nokk abruptly stopped on his track and focused his hearing to determine the source of the call. I looked around and spotted the face of Hiccup Haddock through a gap on the wall.

"Elsa!" He called as he made through the gap with Toothless behind him. I gently hopped off Nokk and waited for on the other end. Once he was out, I welcomed him with a hug.

"How did you get here?" I asked, pulling away.

"How did _you_ get here?" He asked in return while helping his dragon get through the small gap on the wall.

"I was... I don't know how, to be honest," I shrugged. "All I knew was that I was riding on Nokk, on my way to join the others on the other side of the island. Suddenly, something hit us and sent us flying into... here, apparently."

"Was it ice? Green ice?" He asked as he used his buddy as a balancing point due to his absent prosthetic.

"Green ice? Yes! It was something icy!" I snapped a finger.

"The Bewilderbeast must've jumped on you, I think," he grabbed his chin.

"Bewilder what?" I asked, furrowing a brow.

"A giant dragon that spits ice instead of fire," he said. "I took care of it," he cracked his knuckles proudly.

"Apparently it also took care of your prosthetic as well," I gestured to his limb. "What happened?"

"Ohh... Long story. Complicated, too. I'll tell you everything once this is over," he hopped back on Toothless and off into a direction only he knew. I followed him along on Nokk.

"Do you know the direction?" I asked.

"Like the back of my hand," he replied. His reply did give me a boost of confidence.

"Well, actually, I uh... I'm fairly confident that I do," he replied, now with a slight hesitance. Right away, that boost of confidence inside me was no more.

"Hiccup..." I called.

"Wait, how did _you_ know that I was here? There's no way you just started shouting my name randomly, right?" He asked as he stumbled upon a cross path. It was the most cliché one; a path to the right and a path to the left. He chose the left one.

"I used my power to create a sculpture of the past when I spotted your footprints by the stream," I explained. "Pretty sure Anna mentioned about water possessing memory? I used that and that's how I learned that you were there by the stream moments ago."

"Ah yes. Water having memory. Like how it goes in and out a living being over and over," he mentioned. "It makes sense."

I gave my forehead a smack. "You really had to mention that one. Don't tell me Olaf told you that one."

He turned to me with a smirk. "The snowman simply can't stop talking, I'm afraid."

I snorted at the fact. He was true.

We continued the walk in silence for a brief moment until I remembered of my sister, who was probably dealing with Therondians out there.

"I hope Anna and the others are okay," I spoke out of worry. "I've been away from the fighting for too long now."

"They are as tough as nail," he said as Toothless jumped over a ledge. "Anna will be alright."

"You're not worried?" I asked him.

"Of course I am. One way to cope it was to get rid of the biggest threat in the situation, which is the two Red Death's. One is down, one is still up. And it's the one that Drago flies on," he explained.

His explanation made perfect sense. "You're right…"

"She will be okay, Elsa," he convinced once again, turning to me briefly.

"She's going to be so pissed knowing that the very thing that she requested from us was no more moments after she requested it," I crossed my arms. "But she just can't understand that sometimes... I can't risk risking her life. I know it's the equivalent of me shutting her out like I've always done in the past twenty years. But there are dangers that are very capable of taking her life."

"Well… I can't lie, I have to agree," he replied. "But… she did survive dangerous things. She fell off a cliff while being chased by your snowman, Marshmallow, sacrificed your life on the edge of freezing due to frozen heart, punched her ex-boyfriend off a boat, lured the earth spirits to break the dam to break the curse of the Enchanted Forest…" He counted the events with his fingers and stopped. "Did I miss something else?"

Hiccup did have a point. Anna had a thing with surviving life-and-death situations. If it weren't for her determination, I don't know what else it would be that saved her life.

"You do have a point. She is… well, perhaps her guardian angel always flies nearby," I chuckled. "Though that doesn't mean we need to endanger her life."

He turned to me with a sly smile. "Well, this whole trip is most likely a one-way ticket, anyway. And neither of you needed to come in the first place."

I frowned at his statement. "We are not going to argue about that when we are already this far into the journey and _this_ close to the finish. Besides, you did allow us to come."

He raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, I hear you, Your Majesty."

I sighed. "Anna, please take care of yourself."

"Yes, Elsa," Hiccup imitated his girlfriend's voice.

As we proceeded through the narrow passage, at the tail, we were inside a room with another stream nearby.

"Okay, that's the stream… if we take a right to follow the stream, we should be able to find an opening that leads to the surface…" Hiccup directed his dragon to follow his lead, and I followed it. After some more walking, he stopped abruptly and scratched his hair in an irritated manner.

"That's supposed to be our way out," he pointed to a certain direction, in which I had to come over to his side to look better. Hiccup was pointing at a pile of boulders where water was coming out of it. It looked like a great force had caused it to collapse.

"Guess we will have to find another way out of here…" He and Toothless walked away from the stream. I was about to follow his lead again when I spotted something on the ground.

"Hiccup!" I called, pointing at the object on the ground. "There are tracks!"

He turned around, examining the tracks, "There's no way somebody's here as well."

"There's one way to find out," I hopped off Nokk and knelt down to plant my hands on the ground again. Focusing my power on the wet ground, the water on the ground began to form into droplets and hover upwards. They soon turned into snows and formed another ice sculpture. My eyes couldn't believe what the snow formed.

"A-Anna?" I said in disbelief.

The sculpture was Anna, holding her flame sword and what seemed to be Hiccup's prosthetic leg and walking along the stream. She was in a terrible shape; she had bruises, cuts, and her eyes screamed tiredness.

"She must've followed the stream, let's go!" Hiccup commanded.

**Anna's POV**

"Anna?"

"Anna, wake up."

I wanted to obey the request, but my eyes were heavy. So, I took my time to really open them. However, in the process, a bright blue light welcomed them, so I flinched, inevitably.

"Elsa, could you lower the brightness of your magic? She can't adjust to it," a male voice advised. A _very_ familiar male voice.

"Oh, sorry," the other voice replied, which sounded very familiar, too. Eventually, it's the familiarity of their voices that made me peel my eyes fully. There was an ice crystal emitting a dim light from above, and it allowed me to see who the speakers really were. It's the duo that I thought I'd lost; Hiccup and Elsa!

"OH MY—" I pulled them into my arms by their necks instantly, kissing their hairs while tightening the hug afterwards. They returned the hug slowly.

"I T-T-THOUGHT I'D LOST YOU TWO!" I stuttered as I slowly broke down in tears. "I SAW YOU TWO DYING!"

"W-what do you mean? We never died," Elsa chuckled slightly. "You must've been mistaken."

I pulled away to look at my sister and my boyfriend by sharing glances. "Elsa, y-you were… hit by that dragon's…"

"I was, yeah. Sent me and Nokk flying into this cave. Here I am, with just a sprain on my ankle," she explained briefly.

I turned to Hiccup. "Hiccup?"

"Well, it was a close call. The last Red Death was about to hit me with a swing of its tail, but Toothless and I made it out. Well, apart of me did, at least. I got my prosthetic stuck, if you're wondering just how much of a close call that was," he explained. "I found the prosthetic washed up by the stream on our way to here," he gestured to his prosthetic. "Did you happen to just lose grip of it?"

"I sorta did… and… yeah, well, technically, I didn't see you dying. But I did speak to Drago and he told me that… he killed you," I held their hands together and gave them a glare that meant business. "For the love of God, please, I have had _enough,_ " more tears built up on my eyes. "D-Don't ever leave my side, please…"

They shared a glance, looking unsure of my small request.

"Is that t-too much to ask?" I asked.

"Anna, I can't promise you that, I'll be honest," Hiccup replied. "But there's still one titan class dragon flying around, causing havoc on our allies. God knows what's happening down there at the moment. And that dragon, and the man flying on the dragon itself, can very much separate us. And I'm talking about _death_ separating us."

I frowned. But then I realized, he was right.

"And I'm still a chief… A chief protects his own, even if it means sacrificing—"

I shook my head. "Don't. Just don't. I get what you mean."

Elsa grabbed his shoulder and gave me a reassuring expression. "I won't let that happen, Anna."

I constantly shifted between my sister and my lover. The two were giving me that look that said that it would be okay for all of us to separate for greater good, that things would go accordingly as hoped. Deep down, we all knew that the chances of either of us falling to our death were still there, but I guess in times like this, sugarcoating things was one way to maintain optimism.

I nodded in defeat. "Okay… Just… be careful…" I wiped my eyes dry.

"We will," Hiccup helped me stand up, which made me notice the presences of Toothless and Nokk, who were merely watching us in the whole time. "I'm gonna need you back on full energy because we're going back to where the whole scene is. And actually…" he grabbed his chin. "I am reminded of another exit that we can take… we can just follow the stream and we should be good."

"Up or down the stream?" Elsa asked.

"Down," Hiccup replied.

"Sounds like the easiest option there is," Elsa cracked her knuckles and hopped on the sitting Nokk. "Hop on, Anna."

I did as she told. "Pardon me, any chance of either of you knowing how long I was passed out?"

"I've been walking around for nearly an hour, perhaps," Hiccup replied, hopping onto his dragon and directed him to follow the stream from the side. His answer shocked me a tad.

"Oh God. I hope the others are doing fine," I said while holding onto my sister tightly.

"That's why we need to hustle," my sister added. The Night Fury ahead of us suddenly picked up phase, jumping here and there through the cavern as the magical ice crystal above him followed his lead to provide illumination. As we followed down the stream, more and more other small streams joined the one we were following, eventually creating a big rapid one in a larger room. I found hard to believe that mother nature created all of these, as if it really was architectured to be this way.

After minutes of running inside the labyrinth, I saw a wide opening on the far end of where we were headed, almost like a mouth opening with stalagmites decorating it and looking like a set of teeth along with the stream falling down on the end. However, the opening was blocked by something falling down from above, which prevented us from seeing the supposedly-visible view of the ocean if it really was an entrance to the outer world.

"There it is…" Elsa spoke softly. "Looks magnificent…"

"Indeed, it does…" I added.

Hiccup and Toothless stopped at the end of the stream, where it became a giant waterfall on the other end through the stalagmites. By the time we approached the drop, that's when we realized that another waterfall was falling down from above the waterfall itself.

"This is Jörmungandr's Jaws, the giant serpent's mouth, another 'entrance' to the labyrinth. Just below us," he pointed down to where the waterfall was crashing to, "is where our base is. You two make your way down with Nokk, I will continue my unfinished business with Drago—oh wait."

He turned around and spotted something problematic, which I didn't know what.

"Toothless' wing… how could I forget?" He referred. Hearing the remark, the dragon lifted his tail to see his no longer symmetrical tail, since the other fin was literally no more.

"I can fix that," Elsa said. With a dance of her hand, a flurry of ice made its way to Toothless tail and an artificial wing materialized out of thin air.

"Whoa," Hiccup rounded his mouth. He shifted his peg leg that made the fin fold and unfold. Even Toothless seemed to be taken aback by Elsa's creation. "Just like the old one. Thanks!"

"No problem. So, how tall is this drop, really?" Elsa asked.

"It's located right in the middle of the island's height. So around two thousand meters," Hiccup answered, readying himself for whatever he was about to do.

"Perfect. I've been practicing for this moment," she summoned a harness around Nokk to get a proper grip on the water horse.

"You've been what?" I asked.

"Practicing, back in Northuldra. Just hang on!" My sister replied.

"What have you been _up_ to in Northuldra, actually?" I asked worriedly, tightening my arms around her. Before she could even answer, not that I knew that she was going to, anyway, Toothless leaped through the crashing waterfall. A second later, Elsa gave Nokk a kick, making him follow the dragon as well with a leap through the crashing waterfall. I was soaked once again, and the still continues rain outside was not helping.

"OH MY GOOOODD—" I screamed.

At one point, Nokk was free diving into earth, completely airborne and possessing very little control of our fall. However, once his legs made contact with the waterfall, he began galloping along the waterfall. This majestic and unbelievable maneuver allowed us to catch up with Hiccup and Toothless, who were diving as well. Soon, before crashing into the water, the dragon expanded his wings and flew away.

"Elsa, please tell me you have a plan to soften our landing!" I yelled to her.

"I do!"

At the end of the waterfall, a slope made out of ice suddenly materialized, with the other end positioned upright with the surface of the water, and it was placed right where we were heading to. Once reaching it, Nokk slid along the slope seamlessly and skidded on the water once reaching the end. He proceeded to gallop on the water, and I proceeded to lose myself by resting on Elsa's back due to how insane the last couple of seconds were.

"Chin up, Anna," Elsa spoke. "We still have a lot to do."

"You've been… practicing that… in Northuldra?" I asked, still trying to tidy up my breathing and my heartbeat.

"Uh huh."

"You are NOT coming back to there," I demanded. "Queen's order."

She turned around with a 'busted' smile. "Teehee."

I remained frowning at her. However, the view ahead as we marched to the western side of the island distracted me. There were many ships that were on fire, and dragons flying in directions that were unpredictable. I saw the large dragon itself causing havoc by spitting fiery breaths against the smaller dragons. It really was hard to determine whether or not we were winning. Winning or not, our arrival was about to make a difference.

As Nokk galloped his way, I spotted Toothless and Hiccup flying above roughly at a speed same with ours. Toothless spat a fireball to the giant dragon from afar and it was a hit! The giant dragon roared in pain in response. After seeing that his shot was a hit, the Night Fury flew into the clouds, gone from our sight.

Nokk's incredible speed made us arrive at the scene rather quickly. But Therondian boats were there to welcome us. Some of them had apparently spotted our arrival and started shooting cannonballs into our direction. Doing an evasive maneuver cost us precious time.

"Take this!" Elsa lifted her arm, and a giant icicle pierced through a boat that that was shooting us with firearms. She did the same to several other ships that were bothering us.

"Any idea of the ship our guys are onboard at the moment?" Elsa asked.

I studied the view of ships ahead to determine the very ship she asked. I quickly filtered the ships to the biggest ships there were, since it's the only kind of ship that the Therondians utilized to carry the dragons. I spotted one that was swarmed with dragons from above near the island and determined that was it.

"There!" I pointed.

"Okay!" Elsa replied and signaled Nokk to pick up some more speed. The west side of the island was basically one messy parking lot of ships. As we entered the area, we had to move between the tight spaces between the ships. There were bodies floating, either human or… dragons, sadly, and wreckage in the form of wood planks, swords, barrels, masts, anything that you'd expect to be found on ships. It was bitter to know that not all dragons made it out alive.

We suddenly stopped at spot where there was literally no gap for us to squeeze through. When I looked up, I discovered the reason why the guys put their ships so close to one another; it was to reach the cargo ship the Berkians were raiding. They swung by the ropes on their masts or simply jumped from deck to deck, all to reach that very ship. But we were so close to the cargo ship!

"Damn… any idea, sis?" I asked my sister.

"When do I not?"

Elsa placed her hands together and separated them swiftly. A shock wave followed afterwards, as giant walls of ice formed out of the water and pushed the ships apart, creating a straight shot path for us towards the cargo ship. Some Therondians who were in the process of making their way to the cargo ship fell into the water.

"Awesome!—Elsa!"

I held her before she could collapse. She gripped my hands as she fixed her position.

"That one really wore me out…" She panted heavily.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine. Nokk, go!"

With that command, Nokk galloped towards the cargo ship. On the wooden railing of the ship, I saw a man being thrown off into the water by none other than Astrid Hofferson. After throwing the man off, she waved a hand and cast a set of ladders for us.

Reaching the ladder, I let Elsa climb first after telling Nokk to stay safe. Onboard, it was utter chaos.

"Where have you two been? We were so worried!" Astrid held our hands.

"I'm really sorry! There's been some bumps!" Elsa replied. "How are you all managing?"

"Uh… barely?" Astrid gestured to the whole scene behind her. Dragons fighting men, Vikings making rooms for the others to free the dragons, other ships firing cannonballs right onto the ship we were onboard to interfere our work. Chaos would be an understatement.

"Bad news is that we need to keep the Red Death, that's the giant dragon, away from our dragons! Tips, use the Therondian weapons! If Red manages to have control of our dragons, we're done for!" Astrid instructed. "The good news is, this," she pointed to the deck, "is the second to last cargo ship! Just one more and we are done!"

"Gotcha! How many are there doing the cages?" I asked the female Viking.

"More than enough, I think! We can use more hands on the deck," she gestured us to jump into the battlefield. So, we did. Or at least I thought _we_ did, as I noticed Elsa following me from behind while limping.

I approached her and grabbed her arms to make her stand properly. "It's the sprain, isn't it?"

"It's nothing—"

I cupped her cheeks and made her look into my eyes. "Go free the dragons. I will handle the fight. Go."

I briefly saw a hint that she was going to say no, but my sternness defeated her. Elsa nodded down slowly and made her way to the cages in the same manner. With that settled, I pulled out my inferno blade, which sadly had no more fuel in it. But I was willing to make it work.

Having a growing number of dragons on our side was certainly a massive advantage that we could not risk losing. The Therondians and their advanced weaponry simply could not keep up with the ferociousness of the dragons. It really was mother nature versus mankind, and I was very lucky to be by her side.

That is, until mother nature turned her back on us.

_"_ _GROARRRRR!"_

A loud and ear-bleeding roar sounded from above. That's when I realized that the giant dragon was back. After the roaring, all of the dragons froze on their place and began to approach us threateningly, including me! A pack of Terrible Terrors was making its way towards me, making me cornered.

"Damn it, someone grab the cannons once again!" Eret instructed while kicking a man off the ship.

"On it!" Astrid notified, making her way to the lower deck. Seeing so, I kicked my way through the pack of Terrible Terrors, though it really was something I did against my willingness. I followed Astrid into the lower deck, where it was a wreck. The cannonballs fired from the other ships made so many holes on the hull of the ship. It was a miracle that the ship had not sunk yet.

I approached Astrid, who was preparing a cannon.

"Need help?" I asked. She turned to me.

"Oh. Anna. Yeah, help me load this thing," she opened the knob of the cannon to open the chamber of the cannonball itself. Since the ball was so heavy, it took the two of us to lift the object to the chamber. Once inside, we quickly shut it tight and aimed it to the floating Red Death through the massive hole a cannonball had caused.

"There…" Astrid spoke, as she used her torcher to lit the fuse. Fire quickly made its way to the end of base of the fuse. To save our eardrums, we jerked away with our ears shut.

_BOOM!_

We opened our ears.

_"_ _Groaarrr!"_

It didn't take a Viking to tell that this one roar was an indication that the Red Death was in pain. I crawled on the floor to see the Red Death flying away, but only to be hit by a fireball that I assumed was Toothless'.

Astrid landed a hand on my shoulder. "Good job—"

"Everyone, the floor is lava!" A voice announced.

"Oh no, we need to get out," I turned around to the stairs that connected the lower deck and the main deck. We were about to make a run for it, but fire soon consumed the stairs, and the deck above us soon afterwards. The heat was too much for us, we had to duck to avoid catching fire.

"Anna, follow me!" Astrid said. It was a no brainer, as I saw no other solution for the situation apart from whatever she currently had in mind. I followed her lead, and her lead apparently led her to jump into the water through the hole in which we shot our cannon from.

When I looked down, that's when I realized that she had hopped on a dragon, instead.

"Jump!" She instructed. With a brief calculation, I built some momentum by running and leaping on the very last bit of ground I had.

"Oof!" I grunted as I landed on her dragon.

"Anna, meet my girl, Stormfly!" She briefly introduced as the dragon began to fly to follow the other dragons. Even with the evasive maneuver she was performing to avoid any incoming projectiles, Astrid still thought that right now was a convenient timing for her to introduce her dragon.

"Oh hi Stormfly!" I patted the dragon several times. "How did you know this is your dragon?"

"Several years of friendship allows me to tell her apart from the other Nadders," she proudly replied.

"Okay! So, where's the last ship?" I asked.

The blonde Viking pointed to her twelve, to which there was only a thick smoke. I waited for it to clear out.

_SWOOOSHH!_

Out of the thick smokes, the giant Red Death flew through, chasing Hiccup and Toothless with its mouth on fire! Seeing that the giant dragon might hit us, Stormfly performed a quick dive to avoid it, and we _barely_ avoided it. I held tight onto Astrid as Stormfly tried her best to control our altitude. Luckily, we managed to stay just a touch above the water.

"Phew, that was close," Astrid said.

"Yeah, too close for comfort—" I cut myself as I spotted Elsa on the corner of my vision, who was merely watching something behind us on Nokk near us. I was about to call for her, but what she was watching interested me more. So I turned around and my jaw dropped right away.

There was a giant hole on the cliff of the island that was _never_ there, previously. It could've only been caused by the previous Red Death, considering its sheer size was a size that totally matched the size of the Red Death itself. To worsen the situation, neither Hiccup nor Toothless was anywhere to be found.

"Anna," Elsa called. I turned to her. "The water just rippled."


	29. Chapter 29

**Anna's POV**

"Elsa, of course the water ripples, there are ships everywhere," Astrid countered back. However, the horror on her face remained.

"No, you don't understand, I feel it! It came from the island! Right after the dragon breached through that hole!" Elsa pointed ahead.

"Ladies, we have a quota to fill!" Eret called for us from afar. "Let's go!"

We exchanged a look. Elsa remained as worried as ever, but I honestly couldn't share whatever anxiety that she felt. And Eret was right, not to mention that we're so close to the end by now. "Elsa, let's go, we're nearly finished," I reminded her.

With that, Astrid commanded her dragon to dash off into the direction of the last ship. I looked behind to see my sister watching our move not to share her worry in disbelief. Despite knowing the fact that neither Hiccup nor Toothless was anywhere to be seen, I suppressed my worry by having some faith. Hiccup was the first Viking to fly on a dragon, so he could've simply flown to somewhere else to which I was sure I was going to stumble upon later on.

We finally reached the last ship. Astrid directed Stormfly to circle the ship on the sky to scan the ship thoroughly, and the other dragons followed our movement. The ship itself was swarmed by other smaller ones, all for the sake of reinforcing defense. The deck was crowded by Therondians, ready than ever to welcome us with their weapons. However, the caged dragons were anxious to welcome us as well, judging from their nonstop roaring and crying. Cannonball after cannonball were shot toward the sky to take us out, not to mention the bolas, arrows, and bullets, but Berkians were so agile in performing evasive maneuvers with their dragons. At one time, Astrid's Stormfly did a barrel roll to catch, not to evade, a giant wooden arrow specifically made to take out dragons, and threw it back to the ship with her momentum. Fortunately, I had a good grip on Astrid.

"You okay?" Astrid asked, chuckling slightly.

"I'm okay," I replied. I was actually taken aback by the dragon's sudden barrel roll, but I sugarcoated it. "About time for all of us to jump in there."

"We always go in together," Astrid smiled. "But on a cue."

"A cue?" I raised a brow.

Out of nowhere, a dragon flew past us in a blinding speed towards the ship. Only after a few seconds did I realize that it was Valka.

"That's our cue!" Astrid said. With that, Stormfly dived into the ship along with the others. With giant dragons landing onboard, it was inevitable for the ship to wobble from one side to another. I managed to spot Fishleg actually making a hole with his dragon's hard landing on the deck.

Once again, swords were drawn and shields were raised. I hopped off Stormfly and drew my sword out.

Despite fighting with mother nature on our side, I could tell that the Therondians really well knew that this was their last intact shipment, since the Berkians had raided the others. Hence, they invested every man, every sweat, every sword, and every firepower there was. It almost seemed that all Therondians were present. Put it simply, the current fight was fiercer than the previous ones we've done.

"Gah!"

My back landed against a mast after being bashed with a shield. Forcing myself to recover my composure as quickly as possible, I spotted my foe about to swing his sword right at me. I closed my eyes and shielded myself with my own hands.

_Fwoosh!_

The distinct sound of ice magic made me open my eyes. And I was correct, it was Elsa, who had apparently impaled my opponent with an icicle.

"You okay?" She helped me stand up.

"Just a sore back, but then I'm in my twenties, so…" I rubbed my back.

_Splash!_

The ship wobbled into the direction away from the island. Having ourselves near the railing of the ship, Elsa and I caught the sight of the wave on the water that made the ship wobble. Its sheer size caught me curious. What could've possibly caused this?

"I told you the water just rippled! Something must've been triggered after that giant dragon hit the island and went through it!" Elsa said.

"Okay, okay! But what could've possibly caused the water to move?" I asked.

"The volcano?" Elsa raised her brow. "Anna, have you forgotten?"

My jaw dropped instantly. She was right. Probably. I shook my head in disagreement.

"Come on, the island's size is nothing compared to the dragon," I took her hand and dragged her to the busy part of the deck. However, I stopped something vibrated on the deck. To be fair, the deck was crowded with men and dragons wrestling. But this one felt particularly big, big enough to freeze everybody.

"Whoa! What is it doing?!"

"Where's that dragon man? It will listen to him!"

More and more hectic shouting sounded. Along with that, woods shattering was heard from the same direction. After a few seconds, white dorsal fins emerged from the water that were nearly as tall as the ship's masts. A face revealed itself, a gray dragon with two tusks in which one was shattered. The only lighting in the middle of the torrential rain was the fire the dragons had caused either onboard or on the ships nearby. And with the dragon's towering height, it got darker soon.

"The Bewilderbeast… I thought… Hiccup said that he'd taken care of it?" Elsa said, gripping my hand tighter while stepping backwards.

"The Bewilder what?" I asked.

Everyone spectated the Bewilderbeast, either in awe or fear, as it opened its jaw and let out an ear-bleeding roar onto the air.

_"_ _GROAAARRR!"_

I immediately knelt down and arched my back while sealing my ears as tight as I could. I found my sister doing the same next to me, and so were the other Berkians and Therondians. The roaring lasted for at least ten seconds, and our eardrums were barely keeping up with the roar.

Once the Bewilderbeast stopped, we could finally open our eyes and ears. Right away, we were taken aback by yet another surprise. The dragons were reacting by shaking violently, as if they're fighting something inside their heads.

"We need to break the focus!" Eret exclaimed. "Someone give the Bewilderbeast a good hit with a cannon or something!"

One by one, the dragons took off to the sky, leaving their fights unfinished. Right away, without our strongest allies, we inevitably had to pull back. I looked around for such object that Eret requested. There was actually a good selection of options, but all of them were surrounded by Therondians. And with the dragons not being on our side at the moment, there was zero chance of us breaking through their defense.

"Elsa, let's look around for something—" I took her hand but she pulled it away.

"No need," she lifted her hands, flurry of ice forming on them. Out of the water, giant ice pillars shot up and smacked the dragon by the chin. The hit was so hard, the dragon splashed into the water on its back. The ships that were on its way inevitably faced a bitter fate. Elsa broke down right away, collecting her energy by breathing in and out heavily, but it paid dividend as the dragons regained themselves and helped the Vikings fight against the Therondians once again.

"Get her! She's a witch!"

I turned to three men, all three charging in the same time with their swords out. I raised my sword to welcome whichever to reach me first, in which I thought all three were going to do so simultaneously, but under my knowledge, Elsa turned the floor beneath the men into ice. Two slipped on their way, leaving me with one who was still running and maintaining his balance; a perfect window for me.

I aimed my blade to cut the man from the side, particularly on the area that was not covered in armor. Taking a step forward as the man neared, I ducked and slashed my blade on my target. The man collapsed right away as more blood stained my blade.

"Hyahh!"

I turned around to a sword swinging at me from above. With a reflex I could barely believe was performed by myself, I blocked the incoming sword with my own. Once making contact, the man tried to outperform my muscles by applying more force on his sword. Learning from the past, my foot swept his to get rid of his balance. The Therondian lost it, almost taking me with his fall in the process. Once grounded, I finished my opponent with the quick stab by the heart.

Remembering the fact that there were three of them, I turned around once again to see the final one, who was still regaining his composure after slipping on Elsa's ice. His looks screamed absolutely nothing close to confidence, meaning a relatively easy fight ahead of me. I charged for the man when the giant Bewilderbeast showed up again.

"Whoa!"

It opened its mouth, and in the bottom, I saw a torrent of water forming up. It could only mean one thing. I jumped to my sister and used my body to protect her from whatever the dragon was going to spit out. Out of the beast's mouth came out a giant blast of ice that hit the ship so hard; I rolled to the railing of the ship and hit it with my sister in my arms.

I opened my arms to check her. "You okay?"

"Yeah… never been better. You?" She let go of me.

"I-I'm fine. Though if I could just finish the night with no more hitting, that would be great," I checked our surroundings briefly. It was a mess. The ice spat remained stuck on the portside of the ship. The dragons had apparently gone airborne to avoid the Bewilderbeast' frost breath. Only some remained on the deck, but they're still recovering from the huge impact. The same went to the humans; either Therondian or Berkian, everyone was still recollecting themselves. The cages onboard were no longer lined in the order they were previously in. All were scattered around on the deck. I was about to stand up when Elsa stopped me from doing so.

"Stay put."

She 'grasped' the air while looking at the big chunk of ice on the portside, but nothing happened. Slightly annoyed, she used her other hand this time and the ice began to crumble. That's when I realized that she was using her bandaged hand in the first attempt.

As the ice was crumbling, Elsa danced her hands around in a motion that made the pieces of the ice into one big ball of ice. Judging from her messy breathing and shaking arms, I could tell that Elsa was struggling. As it was forming, I could see the Bewilderbeast swimming its way to our ship from afar, about to ram it blindly. To make sure the process would be finished, I stood my ground with my sword raised to any Therondian that wanted to interfere. It didn't take long until I clashed into another duel with another Therondian.

"Anytime now sis…" I spoke as I endured the sword of my opponent with my own.

Suddenly, my opponent pulled his sword back. I was expecting him to land another swing, but instead, he punched me on the cheek hard. I kissed the floor hard for the countless times, but for the countless times as well, I knew that I had to evade whatever attack was coming to me. So, I rolled away once landing on the floor, which turned out to be a crucial move as my foe planted his sword on the floor rather than my spine. I took my window and impaled the man on the heart. His body collapsed on top of mine.

I pushed the body away from mine and my sword out of his heart. I spotted Elsa still forming the ice and suddenly stopping. She broke down once again, panting.

"Elsa?" I called for her, scooching over to her side. "Get up! Please!"

I wrapped her left arm around my neck and made her stand, but only to be welcomed by another group of Therondians. Seeing that it was not a fight I could win in a million years, I simply pointed my blade with my free arm to them.

_STUMP!_

From above, landed a familiar dragon; Cloudjumper. The dragon immediately countered the incoming men with a sweep of his tail. As if the men were weightless feathers, they were sent flying by the whip. Having cleared the threat, the dragon turned his neck around by 180 degrees, almost like an owl, with a look that said 'you're okay?'

"Thank you, Cloudjumper!" I expressed. "Could you please cover me while—"

_BOOM!_

A large explosion took place from afar, lighting the whole atmosphere so brightly, it looked like noon. After adjusting to the amount of light there was, I spotted the Bewilderbeast still swimming its way towards us, but only to be pelted by a flying rock from the sky that was nearly as large as the dragon itself.

"WHOA—WHAT THE—" I yelled.

When I looked up to the source of the flying rock, that's when I realized that the island was crumbling. From the cracks formed by the great force underneath the island, a line of blinding red light emitted, an obvious sign of fresh magma spewing out. Pieces of the island began to either crumble or fly off to a random direction.

"Oh no… oh no… this is bad…" I spoke to myself. "Have we freed all the dragons yet?!" I yelled.

"Last cage is opened!" A feminine voice replied, which sounded like Astrid. "Go! The floor is lava!"

"No need! Everyone, abandon ship!" Eret exclaimed from the other side of the deck as he hopped on his dragon. "The volcano has been triggered! We can't stay here!"

"Volcano?" A Therondian soldier asked. "You sure, man?"

With that command, every Berkian hopped onto their dragons for the final time and abandoned the ship. Astrid showed up with her Nadder right on time by landing behind us. "Need a ride?"

"Take my sister, I will take Nokk," I gave my sister's arm to Astrid and helped her sit behind the Viking.

"W-wait, are you serious?" Elsa asked.

I turned to Astrid and gave her a nod. Right away, the Nadder shot up to the sky to join the others. The dragons that had no riders simply flew away to the east, to the direction of the Hidden World. The Berkians, on the other hand, flew to the north side of the island to reach the base, which I dearly hoped was still in one piece with eruption going on.

I went over to the railing of the ship and looked down to the water. There were the debris of the battle, but no sign of the water spirit. "Nokk?" I called.

_BOOM!_

I turned to the island, where more explosion took place. More rocks were spewed out into the open air, some making their way to my ship, wrecking anything in the path. Due to the impact, the ship wobbled uncontrollably. My heart began to race even more. Time was running out for me.

"Nokk!—Oomf!"

My mouth was suddenly muffled by a hand, and another pulled me by the waist from behind. To free myself, I gave the hand a reckless bite.

"YEOUCH!"

When I turned around after breaking free, that's when I realized that the man was not alone. Many other Therondians seemed to be interested in the idea of capturing a woman who was alone all by herself. That's what's inscribed on the looks of their faces.

There was no other option left for me except a leap of faith. I took the leap by jumping off the ship. To no one's surprise, my bottom landed on something soft and probably convenient; Nokk!

"Nokk! You're here!" I fixed my sitting position. The water horse replied with a small neigh.

"Come on, let's go back to the base."

Giving the horse a slight kick, Nokk set off to gallop on the water. He took a circling route around the island, not a straight shot to the north side of the island. This choice of route gave me an opportunity to really take in what's going on with the island. The bottom part of the island was spewing out fresh magma into the water and thick black smokes into the air. The result of that was the upper part of the island began to crumble due to no longer having a strong base to sit on.

The sight was so terrifying, my brain forgot about the coldness of the pouring rain.

"Hiccup… you'd better be on the ship already…" I spoke softly. The man hasn't shown up since he set off to distract the Red Death, and the faith I've put in him had decayed. My last hope was that he would already be on the ship we were about to use to bail out of here.

Finally, the sight of the waterfall was in sight. Nokk turned to the waterfall to make a straight shot entrance. My hands tightened their grip on the harnesses Elsa made specifically for the water horse as I prepared to be washed away by the torrential waterfall.

"Here goes nothing…Bwahh!"

I nearly lost grip of Nokk, but we managed to break through the fall in one piece. The water spirit took me to a ladder set on the portside of the ship. I grabbed the ladder and smiled to the spirit gratefully.

"Thank you, Nokk. Go to the back of the ship and wait for the signal, okay?"

The horse nodded and disintegrated into the water.

I climbed the ladder and reached the top to see the Vikings bonding with their dragons. Cassandra and Gideon were there as well, admiring the dragons from up close from a safe distance. It didn't take an expert to tell that this was a farewell to their loved ones. It was a sweet moment, but a wild vibration spread through the walls of the cave, reminding us that time was running out. The ceiling of the cave soon started pelting pieces of rocks onto our heads.

If anything was to be considered as a cue for the Vikings to let go of their dragons and to depart, this was it. One by one, they let go of their dragons, and one by one as well, the dragons started taking off, breaching through the waterfall seamlessly. I noticed something off right away; there was no Night Fury.

"Is Hiccup not here?" I asked loudly.

Everybody turned to me. They seemed to be hiding something, judging from the sorry looks on their faces. On the corner of my vision, I spotted his mother, sitting on a barrel and looking stressed than ever.

"Valka," I approached her. "Where's Hiccup?"

She didn't reply. Only after kneeling down to see her face did I realize that she was weeping.

"I don't think he made it…"

I turned around to see Elsa, who was pressing a bandage on her side. "Anna, when I saw the Red Death flew past us, Hiccup was leading it to ram into the island. It was hard to make out, but Hiccup didn't take an evasive maneuver when the dragon rammed its head into the wall. I'm afraid it might've taken both Hiccup and Toothless along…"

My eyes widened in shock. "… No, there's no way! We have to search for him!"

Once again, a violent tremor shook the earth. The beach inside the cave visibly started to break apart, fresh magma finding its way through the gaps.

"Anna, I saw it, too," Fishleg said. "The Red Death rammed both Hiccup and Toothless… I'm really sorry, but there's no surviving in that."

"Queen Elsa," Eret called. "Please tell Nokk to get the ship out of the cave."

"NO! ELSA! DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT—" I went over to grab her hand, but a pair of hands caught me from behind to prevent it from happening. Giving an expression that conveyed sorry, to which I was nowhere near to accepting, Elsa dashed off to the poop deck and looked over the railing.

"No!" Tears began to block my vision. "Elsa!"

"Nokk, take us out of here!" Elsa commanded.

A loud neighing replied. After that, the water beneath us moved, taking the ship out of the cave slowly as more and more rocks pelted from above.

"No!" I broke free of the arms by wiggling recklessly and ran to reach my sister. Suddenly, on my way, a big wave hit the rear of the ship, immediately accelerating the ship out of the cave. All of us lost our balance due to the hit, but we were already out on the open sea, leaving the fiery chaos behind.

"Everybody okay?" Eret asked. I looked up to my sister, who was in the middle of getting herself up. I crawled my way to her and pulled her arm down.

"E-Elsa, why?" I asked through my gritted teeth.

"Anna…"

"Hey, where's that Therondian?"

"Yeah, where is she?"

I turned around as the raised question caught my attention. Apparently, there was everybody but Cassandra and her child.

"Did she fall, by any chance?" Eret asked. Nobody seemed to be able to reply. Not because they were clueless, but merely because there couldn't have been a more obvious answer.

I stood up and saw the cave collapsing by the second.

"She must be still inside the cave!" I exclaimed. I walked to the railing and readied myself to jump when my sister grabbed my shoulder.

"What are you going to do?!" She asked.

"Something idiotic," I replied and gave her a sharp glare. "Do _NOT_ try to stop me."

I pulled my shoulder off of her grasp and jumped off the moving ship. I breached through the water with my feet first. It didn't take long for Nokk to put me on his back and resurfaced back.

"Take me back to the cave, we have a mother and a boy to rescue," I told the water spirit. Luckily, he was the obedient kind of living being. With one strong push, the horse dashed off to the cave in a neck-breaking speed. As we progressed, the state of the island worsened. However, our speed was fast enough to breach through the waterfall and enter the cave before it could collapse entirely.

I thought I would've spotted the duo right away, but I didn't. So I looked around swiftly. "Cassandra? Gideon?"

"Bwah!"

Nokk and I turned around simultaneously to the voice and spotted two hands desperately on the water. Nokk immediately 'dipped' himself into the water by half and approached the mother and the son. Then, he brought the duo out of the water on his back.

I turned around to check. "You okay?"

The mother and the son in her arms coughed off seawater. "Y-yeah…"

"Okay, we need to—"

_Smack!_

Out of nowhere, a rock in the size of a fist hit my head from above. I was on the verge of losing my consciousness and my balance when Cassandra grabbed me. She called my name multiple times, which sounded muffled initially until she shook me violently enough to collect every bit of consciousness there was inside me.

"Oh no, you're bleeding!" She said. I didn't understand what she meant as I felt no part of myself bleeding. That is, until a stream of blood reached my lips from my head, making me taste it for a brief moment.

"We have to get out of here. Horsey, get us out of here, quickly!" The Therondian replied, giving the horse a kick. Nokk understood the command and galloped towards the entrance of the cave. However, as if the universe despised our very existences, large boulders fell right on the entrance, blocking our only way out of here! To worsen the situation, the entirety of the entrance itself collapsed before our eyes. It all turned dark soon, as the entrance was the only source of light there was.

"No, no, NO!"

I gritted my teeth in despair. But then an idea popped out. "Nokk, you summoned that previous wave, right? Do the same thing, try to make an opening!"

The water spirit neighed in hesitance. With his front legs, the water spirit 'stomped' the water, sending a large wave of torrential water into the blocked entrance. Judging from the sound and the darkness that was still present, the wave didn't seem to even budge the boulders.

"Do it again!" I commanded.

Once again, Nokk stomped the water and sent a wave towards the boulders. But the same result took place.

"NOO!"

A hand grabbed my shoulder from behind. I turned around, despite knowing that I wouldn't be able to see anything.

"Anna, it's okay… Thank you, for a making a run to rescue us," Cassandra said. "You can't see me, but believe me, I'm smiling right now."

"Mom?" Gideon called in a worried tone.

"I'm sorry my child…" she replied.

"No! We are getting out of here," I assured. "I just need to…"

I was going to say that I needed some time to think, but there was none. More and more rocks splashed into the water, and it was only a matter of minutes, maximum, until one would land on either of our heads. I clicked my tongue in defeat. This was it.

I placed my hand on Cassandra's. "… You're welcome."

"You're a good woman, Anna. I can tell that—"

Suddenly, something broke through the boulders that were blocking the entrance. After enough light came through, it was clear that it was a pair of tusks that broke in, with one being broken. A familiar face of a Bewilderbeast appeared from the waterfall. Its sharp eyes gazed upon us right away by the time they spotted us. We were frozen on our ground, consumed of fear of yet another possible death that might welcome us; being eaten by the giant Bewilderbeast. However, what it did next was anything but that. The dragon cleared the path even more with its tusks until a straight gap of water was available for us.

Once done, the dragon simply left. Its nonchalant act of kindness left us speechless for a few seconds.

"All right… let's go, Nokk!" I commanded.

With that, we escaped the cave in the same neck-breaking speed. On our way, I saw the dragon's dorsal fins heading off to the east, most likely heading to the Hidden World. In no time, we reached the ship again. Using the same ladder I climbed previously, I let Cassandra climb first before I did.

Once reaching the deck, I spotted everybody simply crossing their arms while staring blankly at the floor under the rain. They turned to me only after I snapped a finger to bring them back into reality.

"Anna, you're back!" Elsa called. She gasped once she saw a clear sight of the bleeding on my head. "You're bleeding!"

"It's fine… I've had worse—oof!"

A large shock wave collided against the ship from the rear, boosting it for a brief moment. That's when we learned that the island had fully collapsed, exposing the volcano entirely. The ships nearby the island were all flipped by the destructive explosion of the volcano.

Once we regained our balance, my skin sensed a different feeling from the rain. When I looked at the raindrops, I saw not the usual clear water, but one filled with small minerals. I saw my sister stained in ashes all over, and so were the others, making us look even more miserable than ever.

"It's raining ash… everybody, get inside," I commanded. Everyone agreed by bobbing their heads once and entered the cabin. Inside, Valka was sitting alone by herself, weeping in silence. The sight of the sonless mother quickly reminded me of Hiccup, who was somewhere inside the blazing havoc we had left behind.

With no other word spoken, I approached the mother and knelt before her. She soon noticed my presence once she removed a finger that blocked her eyes. Valka pulled me into a hug right away, which I returned in the same manner.

I shut my eyes and buried my face in her shoulder. Slowly, I began to sob.

"I s-saw…" Valka softly spoke.

I didn't bother asking what she saw in particular because the answer was too obvious and too painful, and I was not interested in getting to know the details.

Soon, I sensed more arms joining the moment.


	30. Chapter 30

**Third person POV**

It was only a matter of moments until dawn, but not one dawn seemed to be coming for the atmosphere of the people onboard.

Everybody was waiting for their eyes to shut while being consumed in sorrow, for their beloved chief had done a great sacrifice for his people and the dragons. Some had managed to sleep, but some were still struggling. Anna was one of the few who struggled.

Her loss had overshadowed her exhaustion, her need to rest, so much, that she decided that it would be better for her to simply stare at the view on the poop deck after having cried for hours. She rested her elbows by the railing, looking blankly at the west, the direction of what used to be New Berk, which was now a volcano that recently had been triggered. The view was mostly dark. Anna thought that she would've seen a sea of stars after several hours cruising away from Berk, but the same clouds still hovered up above, though they're no longer pouring down rain. With the very minimum next-to-nonexistent lighting, the people onboard had to put torches on several spots on the deck.

The thoughts of their relationship popped in her mind. It had lasted only for a couple of days. Of course, Anna would've very much preferred the idea of having it last for as long as she would've liked, but the universe seemed to have planned something else for her. For this, hatreds began to build inside her; hatreds for anything or anybody out there who had planned this to happen.

'Ugh... why bother... it's not worth it...' she thought.

The queen clicked her tongue, which attracted the attention of a lady who happened to be in the same fate as she was; Valka. Being unable to sleep, she wandered around the deck and noticed the presence of Anna. The Berkian made a gentle approach to the queen. "Can't sleep, Anna?"

Anna turned to her. "Oh, Valka. No, I can't."

Valka joined her by her side. "Are you okay?"

The Arendellian looked down, pouting. "I really want to say that I am... I really do..."

"Awh..." The mother pulled her into a hug with an arm briefly, which Anna welcomed with the same move. Pulling away, Anna returned to stare at the water.

"I wish I had said something before we separated, something that he would've liked to hear coming from me," Anna shook her head. "The second time we got separated, and a mountain size dragon blindly charged at him," she turned to Valka. "I _specifically_ requested to him to stick together before we started the raid."

Valka processed her statement. "I mean no offence, but if there's dragon rider who can take down a Red Death, and a Bewilderbeast, as it happened, it's him. He always had his ways."

Anna was denial to the response. Her expression screamed her opinion that Hiccup was better off sticking together with the team, and Valka noticed this.

"By all means, I dearly wish for a better ending. I lost my son, and my fellow Berkians, and my husband before that," Valka looked down. "Truly, I do. So, despite sounding logical with this and all, I share the same amount of sorrow with you, Anna."

Grasping the queen by the shoulder, Valka connected a gaze to her. "And you're not alone. We are in this together. So please, use our company as much as you'd like before we get to Arendelle. Your kingdom will need you back on wholly, since we heard the news of Therondia giving your kingdom a visit, yes?"

Anna confirmed it with a bob. "Yes... but, I'm still unsure of their purpose behind this visit."

Valka took a guess, "An invasion? That lady from Therondia did say that all Therondia are coming to Berk, right?"

"I really don't hope so... I am so not looking forward for another battle to hop in. Just let them come to New Berk, only to find out that their newly claimed island is no more," Anna explained.

Valka looked away. "That begs the question, would you really allow a kingdom that plays a part in human-trafficking to exist?"

Anna looked up to her after processing her question. "No, but-"

"Anna?"

The Berkian and the Arendellian turned to see one out of two Therondian onboard; Cassandra. Cassandra wanted to convey something that she was not so comfortable in doing so, in which her body language depicted. "Cassandra," Anna replied.

"It took me a while, but I understand now that Hiccup was your...lover... and I just want to say that I'm sorry to hear the news," she shoved her arms together while joining her side. "And, Hiccup's mother," the Therondian looked up to Valka. "I'm so sorry to hear that your son has faced this bitter fate."

Both Anna and Valka responded with a mere nod, acknowledging the simple but honest courtesy.

"If I could, somehow, make you feel better, maybe we can set up a plan in facing my kingdom when they arrive in yours," she shrugged. "I can certainly use my voice as the wife of Lieutenant Xander."

Anna narrowed her eyes, judging the offer given by the Therondian. "Cassandra... why are they visiting Arendelle, exactly?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps it's a stop-by. I know for a fact that Arendelle is located somewhere in between the route you'd take from the south all the way to the north where Berk is located," Cassandra explained. "So, you know, stopping for resupplying and potty break."

Anna bit her bottom lip, readying herself to ask something controversial. "Cassandra, why are you telling me this? You do know how much I despise them for doing this. Are you not scared or something?"

The lady shrugged. "To be honest... I am anything but a Therondian. I am Therondian simply because I was the wife of Lieutenant Xander of Therondia and I am the mother of Lord Gideon of Therondia. How I became the two of these so-called titles is... well..."

Cassandra felt uneasy, her listeners could tell this. However, they remained waiting for her to continue.

"Okay, to give you a slight background; I was a wanderer, roaming the earth in search for my destiny on my horse, Fidella. Upon arriving Therondia, I met Xander, who was the love of my life. I thought... Perhaps destiny could be in the form of a man? But um... we were rash. I was pregnant outside of marriage. I loved the man, but we were too stupid to not play it safe. I was initially... 'okay' with the idea, though it took me weeks to fully accept the motherly life ahead of me. Xander helped me out during the process, and he succeeded. I loved him for wanting to take full responsibility, until his behavior around me and the boy made me realize... or suspect..." she shook her head in denial. "I don't know. That he might have done this simply because he wanted an offspring for his own. Xander was passionate with the boy. But around me? It's almost like I never existed... It'd be a lie if I said that he never hit me..."

Cassandra looked up to the faces of sympathy. "Agh... I don't mean to self-pity this much, but—"

"I'm sorry to hear that, Lady Cassandra," Valka cut in.

Anna crossed her arms. "Yeah... me too. I can't imagine a man who would dare to do that."

Cassandra chuckled once. "It's just a hunch."

"Still..." Anna stuck her bottom lip out.

"By the way, what title do you hold in Arendelle? You seem to be quite the royalty," Cassandra asked.

"I'm the queen," Anna replied. Right away, Cassandra's eyes widened to the max.

"The queen?"

Anna smiled with one end of her lips. "You heard me."

The next thing that widened was Cassandra's jaws. "Ahh... okay... Your Majesty."

Anna let out a quick snort. "No need for that."

The trio remained in silence. Cassandra was still taking in the fact that she had been interacting with the Queen of Arendelle herself, though in reality, it was not much of a big deal. Both Valka and Anna returned to watch the view. They noticed that it was a tad brighter than usual, a clear sign that dawn was to arrive upon them. This reminded Valka of something.

"Ah, yes, Anna," Valka cleared her throat. "Obviously, we have a fallen one. And for that, we must hold a funeral."

Anna bit her lip uneasily. "What do you have in mind?"

Valka turned around and pointed to one of the lifeboats hanging by the sideport of the ship. "We can decorate that boat and use it for the funeral. I suppose you've seen a Viking funeral previously?"

"Yeah," Anna sighed, though she was smiling. "Twice. Back in Berk during our visit, and back in Arendelle."

Valka raised a brow. "In Arendelle?"

"Oh, yeah. I never mentioned. Your son held a Viking funeral for the Arendellian guards that were killed when the Therondians we imprisoned broke out," Anna did the same thing; a sigh with a smile. "They were the Therondians that were supposed to bring Hiccup to their human-trafficking market. Elsa specifically requested him to do the job, since Hiccup is... well, his story has spread across the kingdom, let's say. So, the people of Arendelle have a special respect for him."

A warm feeling presented itself inside Valka's heart. "... Good to know that my son is well known in Arendelle."

Anna shrugged. "Well, it was because of the wool you exported, mainly. But the story of what happened in Berk also spread. Maybe Hiccup was asked by a random passerby or something while strolling about. I dunno."

"Still, he is known for something. Would you like to shoot the first arrow?" Valka offered, smiling. Anna gasped as a reaction.

"I... would be honored. But I think the mother is supposed to do it. Not that I do not want to, but I think the honor is rightfully yours," Anna replied with a sheepish tone.

"I'm pretty sure you've known my son longer than I have. For God's sake, I left him for twenty years," Valka smiled, but only to remind of the irony. "Another thing that I dearly, though partially, regrettably, wish I hadn't done.

Anna pondered for a moment. She was true; perhaps Anna had known the Haddock longer than his own mother had. At least, judging from the amount of time they'd spent together, Valka's statement might very well be true.

"Very well... if you insist," Anna shoved her arms.

"Sorry, if I could just ask," Cassandra cut in. Valka and Anna turned to her. "What happened to those Therondians that escaped from your prison?"

"Well, other than killing some of my guards on their way out, they also held me, Hiccup, and a little girl named Iduna as hostages to reach their ship in the dock. I think we sailed for a couple of hours... that is, until my sister came to rescue us."

"Mkay. What did you do to the Therondians?" Cassandra asked.

"We piled them on lifeboats, sent them to a deserted island with Nokk's help, and sank their ship," Anna answered.

"I... would've dropped a death sentence," Cassandra blurted.

"I was going to. But Hiccup made me realize that, well," Anna blew a raspberry. "I didn't have the guts to do so by saying that he himself didn't have the same thing. The deserted island idea was his idea. You could say that I was a different person back then. This journey has definitely changed me. I have ended so many lives, and those lives changed me."

Anna looked up to the Therondian, shaking her head slightly. "I'm really sorry for your husband..."

"... It was self-defense. I would've done the same, quite frankly," Cassandra shrugged. "It's gonna be hard for the boy, but... I'll make sure he gets through it."

Anna bringing up that specific topic brought a sense of uncomfortableness to the atmosphere. Valka decided to reduce the density.

"This journey has certainly changed Hiccup's life, too," Valka added. "Did he tell you... about... how I..."

Not wanting to continue for the shame she would have if she were to say it, Valka let Anna guess what she was on about. Fortunately, Anna got the right idea.

"About the... first kill?" Anna asked.

Valka secretly wished that Anna had used another word, but she let it slip by. "Yes. I saw the change, literally, on his face. It was most likely the hardest choice I have ever taken during my motherhood. But knowing that we were going to free the dragons from these... brutal people, I had to do it."

"I can imagine..." Anna spoke lowly. By reflex, Anna entangled her arm with Valka's and rested her head on her shoulder. Valka was taken aback on the inside, and so was Cassandra, who was watching her with a weirded-out expression. Realizing of what she did, Anna released her arm right away.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—"

Valka's chuckle cut Anna off. "It's fine, sweetheart. It's really sweet of you."

Luckily, it was not bright enough for Valka to notice that Anna was blushing madly for her reflex. However, soon, the horizon on the far east brought dawn in, which was the direction the ship was heading to. The trio turned around to face the rising sun and were consumed by its beauty right away. Perhaps, the dawn for the grief and sorrow they were in was still yet to come. God knows how long. But they were certainly not complaining for the dawn they were enjoying at the moment.

"It's beautiful..." Anna spoke.

"It is," Valka and Cassandra spoke in perfect unison.

The trio feasted on the beauty of nature. The sight of the sunrise, the cold air, the smell of the ocean; with these three, Mother nature tried her best to soothe them, and it was working.

"So... when do we best hold the funeral?" Anna asked.

"Nightfall," Valka confidently replied.

* * *

**Anna's POV**

It was now nightfall.

Apparently, the only person onboard who didn't sleep at all was me. Eventually, after breakfast, my body forced me to catch up some sleep. Despite sleeping throughout the day, it was one of the most unpleasant sleeps I've ever experienced. Even if the cut were to be exposed to the slightest pressure, it would still cause an excruciating pain, resulting in me being able to sleep only in one position. Not to mention the dreams that took place; the dreadful dreams that displayed Hiccup's death.

I'd be lying to say if the pain was not bothering me. And now, I had to make the world's most perfect arrow shot to honor Hiccup and Toothless.

All of us lined up by the starboard side of the ship, including Nokk. We lowered our sails to remain stationery on the water to specifically hold this funeral. After decorating the pyres with flowers and anything pretty we could find in the ship, Both Eret and Astrid lowered the lifeboats and let them float away from the ship.

It was now the time to initiate the funeral.

Valka, who was next to me, started, "May the Valkyries welcome you... and lead you through Odin's great battlefield."

"May they sing your names with love and fury, so that we might hear it from the depths of Valhalla, and know that you have taken your rightful places at the table of kings..." She paused, nodding to us to lit their arrows. Understanding the command, all of us lit our arrows. Once mine was lit, I grew more nervous.

Valka continued, "...For a great man and his dragon have fallen. A chief. A son. A friend. A lover. A Berkian."

She was done with her speech, and gave me the nod. I raised my bow and aimed upwards. With a glance, I briefly measured my angle and my aim and pulled my string. I could feel my head playing with me. I released the string, but disappointment immediately painted my face as the arrow didn't even reach the boat.

I clicked my tongue. "I-I'm sorry... give me another chance..." I quickly grabbed another arrow, lit the tip in a bucket of coals, and set it on my bow.

"Calm down, Anna," Valka reminded. "No need to rush. Take a breather, release once you exhale."

I took her tip into account. With the same adjustment, I aimed for the boat, took a breath, released it, and let loose of the string. I could tell that it was a much better shot, but the same result occurred; the arrow didn't land on the pyre. It missed.

I let out one big sigh when a hand landed on my left shoulder. I turned to it and noticed Cassandra. "It's alright. You're getting there," she assured with a smile.

"Okay, okay..."

Once again, I took another arrow, lit the tip, set the arrow on my bow, and aimed up. With improvements here and there, I let loose of the string in a perfect unison with when I exhaled a breath. Finally, the arrow landed on the pyre, starting to burn it.

With the first arrow finally landing on its target, which sadly took three times, Valka turned to the other end of the line where my sister was. She was to fire the second arrow to Toothless' boat. She did the same procedure and landed a perfect shot on the boat. Of course, her perfect shot impressed me, and made me disappointed with my clumsiness in the same time.

After the two boats were finally set on fire, the rest followed. They shot their arrows. Having more experienced than I was in archery, every arrow shot landed on the boats. The sight only added more insecurities onto the shoulders.

"Valka... I'm sorry... I ruined the moment," I said, shoving my arms together after putting my bow away.

"Oh it's okay, Anna," she grabbed my shoulder to make me look into her eyes. "You didn't ruin anything. It's the effort that counts. With your current state, I'm amazed that you made it in the third attempt. Besides, third time is the lucky charm, right?"

I smiled for her appreciation. "I guess... thank you."

"You're welcome, Your Majesty," she deliberately addressed me with the so-called proper address. However, contrary to that, she pulled me into a hug and kissed me right on the bandage that covered the cut on my head. Weirdly, the gesture of affection didn't hurt at all, while a slight press of a finger would've hurt.

I didn't even get to return the hug when she already let go. The gesture was brief, but I was taken aback by its meaningfulness. In that moment, motherly love was defined. I could tell so because the last time I felt something this close was when I bid farewell to my parents before they departed to Ahtohallan.

It was safe to say that I was touched, for I had not felt something like that for years. I wanted to cry when Mrs. Hoffman clanged a spoon against her cauldron, making me instantly pull that one tear that was about to escape my eye. "Who's hungry?"

"Come, let's eat," Valka said, coming over to the cauldron.

"Uhh... I think I'll eat later," I excused myself as I walked to the cabin. Inside, I walked through hammocks that were set for the other Vikings to sleep in. My sister and I, on the other hand, got the bed instead. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I hugged a pillow and began to think of what I just experienced moments ago.

"Anna?"

I turned to the door where my sister was. "You're not gonna eat?"

"I will eat later. Thanks," I responded and looked away. I sensed her footsteps as she approached me and sat by my side.

"You're okay?" She asked.

I rested my cheek on my pillow to look at my sister. "... I ruined it. Took me three times to get it right," I let out one long sigh. "While you fired it perfectly."

She smiled. "I knew you'd feel that way. Your head is still concussed after the hit. Being able to aim is already impressive."

I rolled my eyes away and looked down. "And it's not just that, actually. It's Valka. How could she be so... passionate around me? We've only known each other for a couple of days, and out of nowhere, I feel like that she's our mother! Did mother posses her body or something?"

Elsa laughed at my statement. It took me a while to realize how ridiculous it sounded.

"No, Anna... Valka is just... kind. That's all," She pulled me closer with an arm. "For someone who has not mothered her own son for twenty years, Valka still knew the ways, even if she applied them to you. A mother never forgets, after all."

"Yeah..." I let out another dramatic sigh.

"Anything else in your mind?" She asked.

"I guess... since she reminds me heavily of mother... it also reminds me of her current whereabouts... out there, with Hiccup and Toothless," I bit my bottom lip. "And father, too."

Elsa turned away, entrapped in whatever she had in mind. I merely stared blankly into the floor until shut my eyes and buried my face in my pillow. I proceeded to weep again for the countless times. Elsa said that I had cried several times in my sleep. But unlike normal people who would just wake up during crying, I didn't.

Out of the blue, I sensed the ship moving forward once again. But this time, I could tell that the ship was moving faster.

I unburied my face from the pillow to look at Elsa. "You told Nokk to continue the journey already?"

"I did, yeah. But this time, I told him to go faster," she slightly smiled.

"Why?"

She looked down. "King Adam of Therondia and his people might very well be already in Arendelle. We must be there for our people."

That made me realize of the work ahead. There might be more bloodbath. More killing. More losses. Who knows?

* * *

"Land ho!"

Hearing the signal, I rushed out of the cabin and was immediately greeted by the scorching heat of the noon. The sunlight blinded me briefly, forcing me to adjust to the brightness. Having done so, I walked to the railing by the portside and looked over to the front of the ship. There it was; the entrance to the fjord of Arendelle, located between two lines of mountains. I've dearly missed the sight of my own home, and it was all thanks to Nokk who has been working nonstop.

We entered the fjord and it was only a matter of moments until my kingdom came to sight. Growing more impatient, I stood by the bowsprit of the ship to really arrive 'quicker'. Once we were near the watergate, I could feel the artificial current Nokk would make was no more. We relied entirely on our sails to move around. With Astrid on the wheel, she steered the ship to enter the bay and park in an empty spot. During the process, I noticed Arendellian guards and servants coming over to our parking spot to welcome us. Inevitably, some villagers were attracted, too, by all the fuss.

Once parked, we dropped an anchor and lowered our sails. Coming over to the portside, I could see Kai placing a plank of wood to bridge the dock and our ship. I adjusted the plank and locked it into place to ensure the safety once we use it to cross.

"Queen Anna!"

"Your Majesty!"

I looked down to my people, and right away, they stopped their cheerful and warm greetings once they saw me. It was most likely because of the bandages and patches that I had all over myself. "Hello!"

I was the first one to cross the plank. Kai was there to make sure that I wouldn't fall by the end. "My Queen, whatever happened to you?"

"Well, battle wounds. What can I say?" I chuckled. I looked behind to see the other Berkians following me. Since the bridge of the dock was cramped, I gestured the crowd to give space as I walked to dry land with Kai. There, both Gerda and General Mattias welcomed me with the same shocked manner, along with some other villagers.

"Queen Anna, are you okay?" The General asked.

"I'm fine. I'm recovering fast. Worry not," I waved a hand.

Gerda circled around me to have a thorough look. "Are you sure? These patches do not seem to be properly applied."

"Mm... Then Elsa should have more practice in applying bandages, I guess," I smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, where is she?" Gerda asked.

I turned around to see the line of Berkians descending down from the ship. By the end of the line, my sister was talking to Nokk, probably expressing her gratitude and bidding farewell to the water spirit. Once done, the water spirit dashed off into the fjord. She did have some patches on her own; on her hand, her bicep, and on her ankle. So, Gerda's reaction was pretty much similar when my sister walked over to me.

"Hi there Gerda, General," she greeted nonchalantly.

"Goodness, Elsa, you look terrible!" Gerda covered her mouth.

"I know. Some proper bath would be awesome," she chuckled. "Oh, before that, Anna, we need to find our guys a room to stay in."

"Ah yes, Kai. Could you please find a place for our fellow Berkians to stay? There are fifteen of them. Perhaps the Olson's has some space," I suggested. My request made him raise a brow.

"What happened in Berk?" He asked.

I shook my head, still in denial of the result of our journey. "I will explain everything later on. For now, we need some proper beds for these men and women to sleep on."

Kai nodded obediently. "Very well."

With that, Kai went over to the pack of Berkians, who was simply chatting to each other, waiting to be taken to somewhere else in the kingdom. He gestured them to follow his lead.

"I'll see you guys later!" I waved my hand, and the Berkians returned the gesture with the same thing as they followed Kai's lead into the village, piercing through the crowd of Arendellian villagers who were watching the Berkians in awe. By the corner of my eyes, I spotted Cassandra and Gideon in her arms following the pack.

"Cassandra!" I called.

The lady turned to my call and walked over to me. "What's up?"

"You're coming with me. Come."

* * *

I gathered my advisor, my sister, Cassandra, and my military officers in the meeting room of the castle. Once the last officer sat on his place, I immediately stood up to initiate the meeting.

"Right, without further ado, I thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming over to this sudden meeting. I am here to break some news. As you have seen, we have returned home with some new companies. Here is Lady Cassandra of Therondia, the wife of a lieutenant of Therondia," I gestured to Cassandra, and my listeners were taken by shock within an instant. "But she's our ally. I can tell that for sure."

Cassandra stole a glance to me, smiling slightly.

"And some Berkians... fifteen Berkians. Or should I say, the last Berkians," my voice cracked by the end, growing slightly more emotional.

"Pardon me, my queen," General Mattias cut in. "But where's Chief Hiccup?"

I looked away, "He didn't make it, General."

He breathed an 'oh'. "I'm terribly... sorry to hear that."

"He died not in vain," I placed one hand on my hips. "His sacrifice saved countless others. We already commenced a funeral for his death on our way to here with the usual Viking funeral."

Everybody looked down with a sorry expression, not brave enough to look up to me after the bad news.

"Anyway, according to Lady Cassandra here, and some other sources, I heard that the whole Therondia are moving over to New Berk, their newly claimed land. Now, most of Therondia have already arrived at the place, but there are some who still have not. And they are planning to stop by our kingdom, are they not?" I turned to Cassandra, who replied with a nodding.

"General Mattias," I called, and the man looked up to me. "As you've heard, Therondia is a force to be reckoned with. What they've done to the people of Berk is... unforgivable. But they have..." I shook my head, trying to find the best way to describe what I wanted to say. "Paid the price. So, I need you to ready your men for the worst possibility when they arrive at our kingdom."

"Very well, but could you please kindly explain what you mean by 'paid the price'? I'm sure most of us are confused," General Mattias replied. The others bobbed their heads, agreeing.

"I do owe you an explanation, huh? Very well. Erhm," I cleared my throat. "By the time we arrived at New Berk, we set a base that was hidden away behind a waterfall. Of course, having real Berkians on our side, we had the knowledge of the terrain of the island. Or, we thought we did. On our return after a scouting mission, Elsa, Eret, a Berkian, Hiccup, and I discovered something underneath the whole island; a crater of an active volcano."

A simultaneous gasp escaped the mouths of my listeners.

"New Berk was a volcano, after all this time," I crossed my arms. "We also learned that the Therondians were about to sell the dragons overseas after capturing them from the Hidden World, the secret haven for the dragons, east of New Berk and nine days of sailing away. Once the last shipment from the haven arrived, that's when we started raiding the nation. Yes, our number was nothing compared to theirs, but with the dragons, we managed. The bitter part is... Hiccup, and his dragon, Toothless, sacrificed themselves to keep us safe from the threat of this... dragon maniac who was his old enemy, riding on the neck of a dragon in the size of a mountain. And there were two of them!"

"The man or the dragon?" Kai asked.

"The dragon! Two mountain-sized dragons under the command of Drago Bludvist, the man who killed Hiccup's father," I explained. My listeners were dumbfounded by the answer.

I continued, "His sacrifice, unfortunately, involved triggering the active volcano. Fortunately, we were nearly done with the raid. So, by the time the volcano was causing havoc on anything nearby, we still managed to escape on the very last minute."

Resting my fists on the table, I looked up to stare blankly at the table. "I suppose I do not need to clarify whether or not Hiccup died when triggering the volcano again," I said, sternness coloring my tone, a clear signal that I didn't want to be reminded by his name for the next couple of moments.

"Very well, Queen Anna," General Mattias replied. "I will tell my men and women to be ready. One question, though. Wait, make it two."

"Fire away," I nodded.

"When are they arriving?"

"Perhaps later this evening. Or tomorrow dawn. We do not know for certain," I answered.

"Once they arrive, what are you planning, exactly? An ambush? Or do we wait for them to make a move? What are they doing exactly by stopping by? A mere resupplying or something?" He asked again.

"Perhaps they merely want to resupply," Cassandra replied. "But knowing this is Therondia, knowing what they've done to the people of Berk, we must stay vigilant."

The General seemed to grow suspicious to the response. "I mean no offence, but Your Majesty," he turned to me. "Can we really believe the wife of a Lieutenant of Therondia? I mean, you knew that your people were raiding the people of Berk, and for Pete's sake, are also taking a part in the human-trafficking market! So why 'stay vigilant' now?"

"That's where you'd be wrong," Cassandra replied calmly. "The monarch kept their role in the market and the invasion of Berk in secrecy. Even as the wife of a lieutenant, I was not allowed to get to the top of the island by my own husband as they were still 'redecorating' the island. I was told that the island had no natives but the dragons that made the original Berkians perish from existence. I was under the delusion that Berk was an empty piece of land."

The response colored the General and the others surprised. They exchanged each other looks and whispers.

"What she said," I gestured to Cassandra. "Thank you, Cassandra."

"You're welcome," she replied.

"So yes. I would like to wait for a move from Therondia themselves. If they were to pull something suspicious or threatening, do anything that would ensure the safety of our people. But again, we _wait_ for their move. Once they arrive, we will greet them in the normal courtesy, with the smiles and all," I explained. "How many ships do you reckon there will be, Cassandra?"

"Three quarters of their armada were already in New Berk. So, a quarter. Perhaps we're talking about twenty-five ships?" Cassandra estimated.

"Well, that is still quite the armada. Hence, we cannot risk making the first move. We're a small kingdom, I'm afraid—"

"You have me."

All of us turned to Elsa, who was offering herself.

"Yeah, no. Whatever you have in mind, I will supervise it," I rejected, making her roll her eyes away, which I cared none, too. I walked over to a cabinet by the other side of the room and grabbed out a map of Arendelle and its surroundings.

"Right, time to make some strategy..." I undid the scroll of the map and placed it on the table. Everybody in the room circled the map by leaving their seats. "Of course, they will come from the fjord," I pointed my index finger to the fjord on the map. "What do you have in mind, General?"

"We could... set several points to place cannons and several soldiers to man them along the coast," he suggested. "Perhaps in every several hundred meters."

Using a ruler, I measured the length of the coast of the fjord. After I came up with a number after comparing it to the scale of the map, I turned around to the triangular window that gave the view of the fjord.

"Four kilometers... Wait."

On the line of horizon, my eyes spotted a tiny speck. I approached the window to have a better look.

My worst horror was confirmed. "They're already here!"

**Pardon me. Mattias is now a general. In previous chapters, I addressed him as a lieutenant :P Sorry Mattias.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Anna's POV**

With the quickest planning and decision-making there was, I told my fellow guards to stay vigilant with the Therondians. To maintain neutrality, we didn't spread the word to the villagers to prevent them from staying indoor as it would attract suspicion. Instead, some guards were dressed in their everyday outfit, not the usual royal Arendellian guard outfit and patrolled the kingdom. The only difference was the hidden swords behind their capes for 'special' occasion that might occur anytime.

With safety element settled, it was only the matter of welcoming our so-called ally.

I stood with General Mattias as we waited for the royal ship to dock. Having a bay that certainly would not fit an armada of twenty-five ships, only several ones entered it and the rest waited by the fjord. My eyes locked onto the one with a special pattern drawn by the hull of the ship, and the sculpture of a unicorn sculptured on the bowsprit of the ship. I had a hunch that this was the ship King Adam of Therondia was on.

I made my way on Molly to meet the ship, and my guards followed me along. Despite knowing that danger might come anytime, we maintained a welcoming atmosphere with our facial expressions. Once the ship docked, the crew onboard set a wide plank of wood to bridge the dock and the ship. From there, emerged the one and only, King Adam, finely dressed in a Therondian outfit that had its distinctive hexagonal patterns and red-black color combination. The man was as fine-looking as I last remembered him when I was not knowledgeable of what his kingdom took a part of; his blonde hair and beard, the crown sitting proudly on his head, and his dangerously beautiful green eyes.

Once he laid his eyes on me, they widened right away. "Queen Anna! So nice of you to welcome us…" He slowly descended down the wooden plank. "…Whatever happened to you, you poor thing?"

He gestured to my bandage on my head. I lent a hand as he was about to make a final hop off of the plank. "Oh! uh…"

At this moment, I was not prepared for the question. Obviously, I could not just tell that I wreaked havoc on his kingdom and his plan to sell dragons overseas. Their sudden arrival made things so hectic that I forgot to come up with a reasonable answer for this kind of question. To answer the question, I went with; "I fell off the stairs."

The response raised the brows of not just King Adam himself, but also my guards and his. It was most likely the most unqueenly answer there was.

"Yeah. I fell off the stairs. It's just the heels, you know what I'm saying?" I smiled sheepishly.

"Your head bled?" He asked, concern drawing on his face; the very last thing you'd expect on a king who ran a human-trafficking market.

"Yeah! Anyway, welcome, King Adam," I slightly bowed. "It's good to see you here again."

"Thank you, Queen Anna," he bowed in return, beginning to make his way to dry land. We were escorted both by Arendellian and Therondian guards.

"So… what brings you here? That's quite the armada you've got there," I pointed with a thumb to my back. In response, he smiled innocently.

"My whole kingdom is moving to a new place. One day, once we've mapped the entire route thoroughly, we will update you regarding our new whereabouts," he replied. "In the meantime, we're here simply to resupply ourselves, if it would not be too much of a fuss."

I shrugged. "Well, it is not, no worries. Please, enjoy your time here."

With that, he turned to his men and gave them a nod. With that nod, they set off to lower crates that were to be filled with supplies from their ship. They used a special mechanism in the shape of a wooden hook to lower the crates easily. The mechanism beat human muscles by a long mile.

"I know we will. By the way, does your sister happen to be here? I know she's a resident of another place at the moment, but I expect a sister will occasionally visit the kingdom," King Adam asked. The question made me suspicious, but I didn't let any suspicion reached the surface.

"She is here, yes, as it happens," I answered.

"Ah! It would be nice if I could meet her, for a little catching up and other nonsense stuff," he said, a smile cutting across his face. Of course, I grew more suspicious. But once again, my principle was to stay neutral. If this turned out to be the move, then we would hit back with all we got since we've prepared.

"She's in the castle, as we're speaking. Do you want to go there now?" I offered with a smile, stopping by my horse's side.

"Please. I long for a chat with the snow queen herself. And yourself, too. But boy, do I need an Earl Grey now," he said. With that, a Therondian guard brought along a horse from the ship to the king himself. The king hopped on his horse and I hopped on mine. With a slight kick, our horses strolled along the dock.

Along the way, villagers waved at our presence. Hiccup's story regarding the kingdom's wrath has indeed spread, but the villagers remained silent about it. Luckily, they behaved normally when the royals passed by them. Some did look nervous, but it was not enough to attract attention.

However, as we strolled past the Olsen's, the glaring eyes of the Vikings turned the heads of the royals. Valka stood by the entrance with Lady Olsen, staring at the king with a dead glare. Luckily, she already had her attire changed to a normal Arendellian look, though it's quite the sight to behold; a Berkian wearing an Arendellian outfit who was not Hiccup, who had worn Arendellian attire many times before. So, appearance wise, she didn't attract any suspicion. But her staring was too much.

"Is that lady okay?" King Adam asked.

"Oh, she's just always grumpy," I excused. Suddenly, by the windows of the inn, the other Vikings peeked through, seemingly curious of the passing royals. They didn't give the death glare like Valka did, but again, it was enough to raise more question.

"Her colleagues seemed to be eager in seeing us. Have they not seen a king before?" He asked.

I stuck my bottom lip out. "Perhaps they have not. Who knows?"

Fortunately, Valka stopped the glaring and stormed into the cabin. I did signal the woman to stop the glaring and all, but she cared none. I guess it would be hard not to glare at the ruler of the nation that invaded your homeland and committed genocide on hundreds of people.

Maintaining my cool all the way, we finally reached the gate. The guards opened the gate for us. Once inside, I hopped off my horse and signaled her to return to the stable by herself.

"You do know the way, right?" I asked the king of Therondia.

"To where?" He raised a brow.

"To the dining room. We'll meet you there. In the meantime, let me get my sister, okay?"

* * *

"Remember, the trip to Berk never happened, okay?" I reminded my sister.

"I know, I know," she said.

Pushing the door open revealed ourselves on the doorway. We spotted King Adam sitting alone by himself, sipping on a cup of tea which I assumed was Earl Grey, the very tea he mentioned earlier.

Once spotting us, particularly Elsa, the man's eyes widened. "Ah, Queen Elsa! Or should I say… princess? Again, I'm a bit confused with your title."

We took our seats next to each other and across King Adam's. "You still may address me with queen. People still think that I'm the queen, despite Anna already taking over."

Demanding a proper addressing; that's not very Elsa. But then again, we were facing the king of Therondia, not one of our friends.

"Very well. I suppose there isn't really any rule that says that you can't have two queens," he cracked his knuckles and folded them. "How are you two doing?"

"Oh we've been fine. Well, running a kingdom is never the easiest job in the world," I replied. "Especially when you've fallen from the stairs."

Elsa turned to me. "You have?"

I pointed a finger to my bandaged head. She rounded her mouth afterwards. We should've had a longer briefing.

"Ah yeah, that," she bobbed her head.

"And you, Elsa?" King Adam asked. "Are you a ruler of a different land? Come on, two queens? That can't be the case."

She shook her head gently. "I am not. I'm just residing in Northuldra now, a place where I belong. Having been born with powers, Northuldra is just the place where I belong, with the other spirits."

The king scooched closer. That might've been a mistake. "Interesting… Are you saying you're not the only one with powers?"

I took a glance to Elsa, who seemed to have realized that she might've spoken too much. But she tried her best to respond naturally.

"Uhh… yeah…" She answered. A part of me wished that she'd come up with a different answer, but Elsa was terrible in coming up with lies at the very last second.

"Just when I thought magic was just a story to keep the children entertained. Please, do tell me about this land called Northuldra," Adam sounded more and more interested. "What of the spirits, how many are there?"

Elsa bit her lips. "There are five of them, including me, as I discovered recently. Hence, why I gave the throne to my sister."

"Five..." Adam grabbed his chin. "What do the others possess? The same ice powers?"

"The four basic elements. Earth, fire, water, and air," she casually explained. Elsa' casualness in giving away such information was getting under my skin. I wanted to tell her to stop telling more, so I gently kicked her foot under the table. Despite being signaled, Elsa didn't even bat an eye.

"Sounds… magical. Are they in the form of humans as well?" King Adam asked.

"Oh, no. Each has their own form," she smiled.

"I would love to meet them. Where are they?" He asked again. This time, Elsa didn't answer right away, as her smile faded away. Instead, she put on that look on her eyes whenever she was judging someone, as if she was looking directly into his soul (if he had one, anyway).

"That, I can't share with you, I'm afraid," Elsa spoke, her lips curling into a smile once again. I was relieved on the inside. "It's confidential."

King Adam raised his brow at the word. I was sure he was slightly offended by our secrecy, but his feelings didn't matter if we were to put the lives of the people of Northuldra on the end of the line.

King Adam threw his back to the chair. "Oh come on, my queen, we've been allies for—"

"For only a couple of months. Trust takes years to build, not merely on a signature on a piece of paper," Elsa cut in sternly. I was cheering and nervous in the same time internally. King Adam gave my sister a stare that questioned her sudden sternness.

"Very well," he cleared his throat. He was about to say something again, but Elsa laid her elbows on the table, seemingly about to shoot the king some questions. And I was right.

"So, new land, huh?" Elsa asked. "Where could it possibly be?"

"I know, right? Where could it possibly be?" He smiled, and then his smile dropped away. "It's confidential."

My sister pouted, but purposefully. "Awe. That sucks. How are we gonna deliver our goods then? Ask the wind for direction? You do realize that we still trade goods. Unless you want to end the contract abruptly now?"

It was a good move by her to touch on that, though I was beginning to question who the real queen of Arendelle was. We still traded goods up until this point with Therondia.

"It's a land north from here. Well, northwest. From the papers, I learnt that it was an empty large island. No natives, perhaps just the wildlife," he smiled proudly. "Can't say no to an empty piece of land."

"But why move the entire kingdom?" My sister asked.

"I've always hated the south. Southern isles, especially," he said. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who shared the same hate, though I didn't learn his motives. "The land was getting drier and drier. I heard that this land offered a lot of potentials. Some of my men have already been there."

"Sounds like a jackpot," she clapped her hands once. "Congratulations on finding your new home."

The sarcasm was so well spoken, King Adam didn't seem to have a clue that she was being sarcastic. "Thank you. In truth, actually, we haven't really mapped the route thoroughly and correctly, so that's the actual reason why we're not sharing the information of its whereabouts," King Adam smiled sheepishly. "Once we're ready with the map, we'll take you there someday."

"I'm looking forward to it," Elsa replied. "How many days of sailing are ahead of you?"

He counted with his fingers. "Perhaps roughly… seven or eight days?"

"Well, please, do fill your stocks," she smiled with one end of her lips. "Don't want your men and women to starve midway."

"Indeed, I do not want that. What I want is… perhaps an honor taking you for a stroll, Queen Elsa? Queen Anna?" King Adam asked. My sister and I exchanged a look to convey our uncertainty with the request.

"Please, my sister will be honored," I replied. That immediately earned a frown from her. "You two have been doing most of the talking, _anyway_. And I have a lot of paperwork to do."

"Yeah, I just noticed that. Have you been spacing out, Queen Anna?" He asked, chuckling slightly.

"Oh yeah, it's the head, you know," I gestured to my bandage. "It's messing with my senses."

"No, it's not," Elsa rejected.

"You're not the one with the banged-up head, sis," I rejected again.

"But, Queen Elsa, I see that you have some patches as well," King Adam pointed to her patches.

"Ah, I fell from the tree," she excused. Though it sounded more terrible than my excuse, her execution was far more natural, resulting in King Adam seeming to buy her excuse.

"Must've been a tall tree," he said.

"Oh yeah. Trees in Northuldra are tall," she said. "And very well! I'll do the honor. Where do you want to go?"

"How about…" he stuck his bottom lip out. "The town?"

"Sounds good. Why don't you wait by the gate? I need to prepare myself," she smiled confidently. With that cue, the king stood and bowed to the two of us.

"By the gate. I'll see you later, Queen Anna," he bid. After that, he left the room where two guards welcomed him and escorted him along.

I turned to my sister. "Great, now you have a date with the king of Therondia. I can already tell that he's into you."

"Well," she shrugged, "I can tell the same thing. But… faking it is the name of the game, no? We are pretending that we do not know the crimes that he has done. Hence, the former queen of Arendelle is going on a date with the king of Therondia."

I pondered for a moment, trying to remember King Adam's dating history by the stories I've heard. "Doesn't he have a wife?"

Elsa's eyes widened. "Oh my god. He does. What the—"

"Well, doesn't matter. This walk was probably not meant to be a date, anyway," I cut in.

"He would've come up with a reason to exclude you, if he really is trying to take me out," Elsa added back.

"I guess…" I laid my back against the chair. "But boy… were you playing with him back there," I smirked. "Never thought my socially-awkward sister would be able to play with a guy's feelings."

She stood up from her chair. "I know. Three years of taking the responsibilities of the crown and this is the result. Who knows? Perhaps the same thing will happen to you."

"I am so not looking forward to that," I waved a hand to gesture her to leave. "Off you go. Be careful!"

She chuckled. "I will."

* * *

She missed lunch. I accepted that. Perhaps they had lunch somewhere else.

She missed dinner. I could not accept that.

It's past bed time. Where the hell could they be?

I looked out of my window, waiting for the main gate to open anytime. Waiting for three hours straight had not helped me with my anxiety. Sure, pretending of the king's background was the name of the game, but was dating with the man himself a must? He really had to ask for such request.

So far, no Therondian pulled anything suspicious. At least, my patrolling guards didn't spot any suspicious move, yet. They had only been resupplying themselves as their own king himself had mentioned. But when it came to Therondia, such peacefulness was too good to be true. This is a human-trafficking kingdom, for Pete's sake.

I was nearing my fourth hour of waiting for the arrival of my sister. Perhaps this was time to send a search party. It's one o'clock in the morning, though the weather seemed to be anything but a morning-like weather; it was cloudy with a chance of heavy rain. Not coming home this late could only either mean the two were having a good time on the bed or they got stuck because their drunk minds wouldn't allow them to unstuck themselves. But they were no couple.

I put on my cloak over my sleeping gown. I took one last glance out of the window, but then I spotted the main gate opening. My sister stepped in, turned around, and waved to a figure that I assumed was King Adam. The guards didn't let the king enter as Elsa walked away to the entrance nonchalantly.

"There you are…" I removed my cloak and rushed my way to her. Through the corridors, spiral stairs, and more corridors, I finally caught my sister up, who was sneaking into the kitchen. I crashed my body into her back.

"Elsa!" I hugged her.

"Anna!—" she turned around, "Geez, you shocked me!"

I held her arms. "Are you okay? I was beginning to worry because you're so late—"

"I'm fine… it's just… ohh—" she lost her footing for a second, and immediately regained balance with a step backward. "I need some water."

The smell of breath caught my attention. "Have you been drinking?"

"Yes. Man basically tried to get me drunk. Little did he know, he was trying to get _me_ drunk," she gestured to herself proudly as she drank some water from a nearby glass. "Though… he's quite the drinker… it was a close match…" Once again, she was losing her footing, so I had to catch her before she could harm herself.

"You need to sleep. Goodness me, thank God you're a strong drinker," I raised her weight by pushing her up by the armpit, and then placed her arm over my neck. "What did you have?"

"Wine…" she answered with a slightly slurry tone.

I took another sniff. "Yeah, smells about right," I began to walk.

"Hey, can I sleep with ya?" She requested.

I raised a brow. "Why?"

"Just thought that… my sister would need a company through her hard times…" she sounded more slurry than before.

"I'm beginning to think that the wine has just kicked in," I said to her, as I slowly took her up the steps of the spiral stairs. This was not an easy task, especially with Elsa weighing us down more and more as time passed. "Beginning to think we should invest in an elevator as well, quite frankly! Hiccup would've known the mechanism."

"So? Can I?" She asked again.

"Yes, you can, sis," I smiled slightly, though it faded away in irritation when I looked at her drunk face.

"Yayyyyy…"

A soft snore sounded afterwards. I stopped on my track to give gentle slaps to wake her up.

"Wake up, we're not there yet!" I commanded.

"Huh? Adam?" Her eyes opened by half.

Finally, we reached the final step. With a left turn, we were in the corridor of our bedrooms. We entered mine. With every last bit of energy there was, I threw my sister to the bed. Seeing that only her upper half managed to land, I grabbed her feet and threw them on the bed as well. Elsa was a slim person, but she was still a dead weight.

I crawled to her side and laid down, sighing out. "Geez, you are heavy."

"Zzz…"

I turned to her, and a stream of drool was already running from the edge of her lips. It was a sight that I never thought I would see in this life. I guess it runs in the family. It's good to know that her drool didn't turn into a small icicle.

"Good night to you, too," I pulled my pillow and covered myself in blanket. I was going to do the same to my sister, but the cold never bothered her, so I shouldn't bother.

I shut my eyes. It didn't take long for me to be carried into the realm of unconsciousness due to my exhaustion after carrying my sister all the way from the kitchen to the bedroom. I was in for a good night sleep, because sleeps after doing some heavy manual labors are always the best.

At least, I thought I was.

My sister was shuffling a lot in her sleep. With the soft springs of the bed, perhaps I should invest in a bed with stiffer springs since her movement caused the bed to move a lot. I tried to ignore it, but it was too disturbing not to ignore.

"Elsa…" I called softly. "Stop shuffling about so—" I opened my eyes to see not Elsa, but two men about to lift her.

"EL—" a hand caught my mouth from behind and sealed it. Another hand caught both of my hands. I tried breaking free but the man's grasp was too strong for me. Being drunk, Elsa showed no resistance as the men simply slid her into a sack and tied the hole with a rope; full on Santa Claus style.

"ELSA—" I kept yelling for her name, despite they were all muffled by the man. I opened my jaw to specifically bite the man's hand, but instead, he pressed my tongue down. He had a thick glove on, and biting it did not seem to affect him in the slightest. Like a helpless animal, he toyed my jaw around by swinging it up and down.

"Don't you dare try to bite me, Your Majesty," a deep raspy voice warned.

"We're ready, tie her down," the man who picked up the sack of Elsa said. With that, the man behind me shut my lower jaw tight and used a long piece of cloth to shut my mouth in the same manner. He proceeded to do the same with both of my hands and feet, all tied together to prevent any mobility.

"In the wardrobe, make sure to lock it," the man instructed.

"MFFFF! NFFHGHHH!" I wiggled. With ease, the man picked me up by the rope and threw me into the wardrobe. Once inside, he shut it and a click sounded. It could've only meant that he locked it.

"MFF! FELSHAAA!" I desperately tried to call for her name. I heard footsteps walking away and the click of a door being shut. My entire world dropped right at that moment.

"ELSHAAA! MFFFF! SUMBODI, PLEASHHHEE!"

I banged my head into the door.

"NGGGH! MFFFTT!"

I yelled and yelled, until I actually felt exhausted. I never thought that I would feel exhausted by just yelling. Though to be fair; I was running out of oxygen, my hands and feet were tied altogether, my position was so uncomfortable, I was on the verge of having a painful cramp, and my sister's life was at stake.

"NGHH! NGHHhhh…" I began to break down in tears. "P-P-Pleasshh…"

I pulled my head to bang the door with my head for the final time. Just when I was about to land a bang, my entire weight rolled out of the wardrobe. The door was opened by somebody, who turned out to be Cassandra!

"Anna? Oh God, who did this to you?" She pulled out a dagger and began to untie me.

Once she removed the piece of cloth on my mouth, I inhaled a large amount of fresh air to refresh my lungs. "Hahh… my sister was kidnapped! Warn the others!"

Her green eyes widened. "Oh no," she helped me stand up and rushed out of the room. I followed her lead slowly. "Guards!"

I turned to a corner where a chatter was sounding from. There, I spotted Cassandra talking to General Mattias.

"How did you know? Did you see her?" The General asked.

"Queen Anna was kept inside her wardrobe, for God's sake! We need to get her back!" She replied. As I weakly walked to her, the general spotted me.

"Queen Anna? You okay?" He asked.

I bobbed my head, but not to answer his question. "S-She's right. The Therondians have my sister!"

His eyes widened. "Oh no, oh no," he ran off to a direction we followed. He began to warn the others along the way.

"Any idea where they've gone in particular?" I asked General Mattias.

"I heard they were departing tonight. There's only one place to look at," he replied.

The three of us ran out to the stables. Cassandra and I hopped on Molly and other Arendellian guards followed from behind. We stormed out of the gate with torches and swords lifted onto the air. A fire arrow was shot high up into the air, signaling for anyone standing by the cannons to prepare them. It was also a signal for the guards patrolling in the village to chase after the Therondians, who apparently had gone onboard on their ships. At least, a pack of three had not, as we later discovered when arriving upon the dock. As it happened, one man had a sack with a possible human being inside in his possession. They were just about to get on to the ship.

"There!" I pointed. "Stop him!"

With that command, arrows were shot right on the man's path. Alarmed by our presence, the Therondian kidnappers tried to rush, but more arrows landed on their path to prevent them from getting on their ship.

"Anna, wait," Cassandra suddenly said. "Drop me here."

I pulled Molly by the harness to slow him down. "What? Why?"

"I can get onto the boat in stealth. Or not in stealth. They still recognize me as a Therondian, you know?" She smirked confidently.

I rounded my mouth. "Good idea!"

I put Molly in a full stop and let Cassandra drop. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," I wished. With that, she dashed off into the houses to engage whatever plan she had that I trusted. Afterwards, I joined my men and women, who had already crowded the dock but seemed to be frozen due to something.

I dropped off my horse and squeezed through the crowd to see what the big deal was. Apparently, it was the biggest deal there was. King Adam, pointing a dagger to the neck of my unconscious sister. She was taken out of the sack to be held hostage.

"Adam, let her go!" I demanded. "You have nowhere to go! We have armed and manned every cannon in the kingdom, and they are all aimed to your ships!"

"Oh, that's cute of you. You'd risk your sister's life by _trying_ to sink my ships with your outdated cannons?" He countered back. I clicked my tongue. He was right. This was Elsa we were talking, the only one I've got left in my little life. And even if my cannons could sink one of his ships, they would just counter the fire back.

"Tsk… Take me, instead! In exchange for her! I will yield to you, I promise!" I gave him an offer, and he laughed at it.

"HA! A normal human being for one who could manipulate ice? You serious?" He asked, stepping casual steps backward to reach his ship. "Besides, Northuldra sounds like quite the place to visit. And your sister here will certainly tell me the direction."

I bit my lips. "You and your human trafficking market…"

He stopped on his track. "My what?"

I pointed a finger to him. "I know everything, Adam. How you attacked Berk, tried to ship the chief into your land to be sold, went to the Hidden World with Drago's help to capture and sell the dragons overseas."

He loosened his grasp on my sister and proceeded to chuckle. "And what are you gonna do with that information? Set up an alliance with other kingdoms to attack me?"

I nodded. "I never thought of that, but you just gave me the idea and it doesn't sound so bad. People like you do not deserve to exist in this world. But then again, we have defeated your kingdom. Those Therondians who are in Berk are no more!"

He laughed hard, totally not buying the fact that I just spat. "Oh darling… yeah, that was quite the joke. It's just a game of survival, this world," he smiled, taking his steps backward with his men. "Face it. You do not have the guts to make any step because I have this knife that can expose her neck open whenever I please. One cannon fire, one gunfire, hell, one step forward, and I will end her life."

His statement bitterly could not get anymore obvious. Gritting my teeth, tears began to roll down my cheeks as I knelt down. "A-Adam… P-Please!..."

King Adam began to take his steps up the wooden plank that connected his ship and the dock. Midway, someone from behind pushed through the crowd into the open. Cassandra.

"Lady Cassandra?" King Adam asked.

"Your Highness! Thank goodness you're here!" She rushed over to his side.

"What happened to you? How are you here?" He asked curiously. Before she could respond, Cassandra wiped off the 'sweat' on her forehead while panting heavily.

"I was imprisoned by…" she turned to me. "Her Majesty. Some of your boys found me. Thank God you're here!"

"Oh you poor thing, hop onboard, we need all hands on deck," Adam said, gesturing her to go. With a slight turn, the good Therondian gave me a wink as they all climbed onboard.

She was now my last hope.

Out of nowhere, lightning lit the sky abruptly. After that, more and more lightning followed. The sky was awake, but in a different way. And it was about to be more awake when rain poured down. My skin sensed an oddly familiar sensation when the droplets landed on my bare arms. They were not the usual droplets, but they contained ashes. Volcanic ashes that I could only wonder where it originated from.

Under the rain, we hopelessly watched the Therondian ship float away from its parking spot.

"My Queen," General Mattias called from my side. "Lady Cassandra was acting, right?"

I nodded. "She was. I don't exactly know how she's going to take my sister out of there, but for the time being, gather the horses. We will tail them along the coastline of the fjord. Lit no torches to maintain a low profile."

"Okay. But what happens when they reach the open water?" He asked.

My brain pondered for an answer for a moment. It found nothing.

"I don't know…"

**Cassandra'a POV**

I watched His Highness' men carrying Elsa into the lower deck patiently, when suddenly, a hand poked my arm. I looked up to see King Adam himself.

"Were you listening?" He asked.

"Ah, forgive me. You were saying?" I asked.

"Make yourself at home. Join me in the cabin, I have an extra bed," he pointed his thumb to the door that led to the cabin while shielding himself from the rain with his arm. I politely shook my head at his offer.

"Please, you first. I would like to embrace the fresh air first. It's been too long since I last had the wind in my hair," I added a smile to seem more reassuring.

"Lady Cassandra, it's about to rain!" He said.

"I know. I will come in once it's too harsh to handle," I replied.

"Very well," he nodded and walked away to the cabin. "Don't catch any cold!"

"No worries. Good night, my king," I bid.

"Good night, milady," he replied without turning to me.

With that, I sat by the railing of the ship and simply watched the crew loosening the sails to gain as much speed as they could. Our ship was the last one to exit the bay. Indeed, every cannon on every fortress was aimed at our armada, but not one dared to shoot.

I opened my hand to sense the droplets falling from the sky. When I brushed my hands together, that's when I realized something was inside the droplets. They felt like minerals. Despite the darkness, I could tell that this was the previous volcanic mineral we once had days ago. It seemed that I was the only one who noticed the weird but yet explainable phenomenon onboard, as the crew simply kept on with their job as if this was a normal rain going on.

My plan was to wait until the crew to finish their job and go to sleep, and then check on Elsa and work things out as I go. However, the lightning up above didn't seem to be so friendly, the light drizzle soon became torrential in a matter of seconds. Seeing so, I rushed into the lower deck to shelter away from the rain. There, I saw my objective, Elsa, caged inside a tight barred cage and cuffed on both hands.

I looked around to see for any spying pair of eyes in the environment. Luckily, this floor was used to store supplies, not for a place for the crew to sleep, so no spying eyes were there. Not to mention that the cage was placed in the corner of the room, where the lit torches' light could barely reach. There was another set of stairs leading an even lower deck that would probably lead to where the crew sleep.

I approached the cage and knelt by it. I discovered that the handcuffs were no ordinary cuffs; they were connected to a coal machine that generated heat in the cuffs themselves. The steel itself was already thick to begin with, and with added heat, I was surprised to see that Elsa had not waken up yet, though she was sweating big time. It really was a sight of torture.

"I'm gonna get you out of here…" I laid a hand on one of the bars. "I promise—huh?"

I turned around to the sound of rushing footsteps. I saw men and women rushing their way to the most bottom deck, not one spotting me sitting by the cage of the former queen of Arendelle. After that, judging from the sound of the pouring rain, I assumed that it was getting harsher.

I turned around to the cage again and looked at the lock of it. "Okay… I need a key… where could it be…"

"Lady Cassandra?"

I turned around and King Adam was there, holding a torch on his own. "My king!"

He grew a suspicious look. "What are you up to?"

"Oh…" I quickly thought of a lie to tell. "I was just… checking in the prisoner. You know, to make sure she's safe and won't escape."

"She's asleep. She had several bottles of wines previously. My goodness was she a good drinker," he clicked his tongue. "Anyway, milady, I have to ask, how did you get here?"

I stood up to face him. "I was… did you see that one Therondian ship when you arrived? Arendellian guards took us in into their dungeon."

"For what reason?" He asked.

"… Something about human-trafficking…" I made up, pretending to be oblivious as possible.

He grabbed his chin. "How did the Arendellians know about this?... I wonder…"

"I wonder of the same, too," I followed his gesture to grab my chin. "Perhaps—"

"But, Lady Cassandra, where are the others? You said you were with the others? Where's your husband, Xander? Your son? Gideon?" He asked, sounding more interrogative by the moment. It was not a pleasant feeling to behold.

"Xander is back in Berk… And so is Gideon…" I lied.

He raised his brow. "The others?"

"Uh…" My mind struggled to come up with a believable lie, and Adam read it like a book.

"I asked my boys as well. None of them found you. You just appeared out of nowhere, as a matter of fact," he crossed his arms. "Where could you have been all this time?"

I nervously gulped, cold sweat running across my back.

"And you are dressed in a sleeping gown. _Arendellian_ sleeping gown," he pointed to my attire. I realized that it was a big giveaway for him just now. "Not sure if a prisoner would be given a night gown, to be frank. I smell treason."

"T-Treason?" I waved a hand off. "Oh don't be silly, Your Highness—"

"I will execute you at morning. At least it will be a tad brighter for us by then so we can enjoy the scene. Executions are always nice to watch, anyway," he smiled cockily. Seeing that he'd already dropped a sentence on me, that's when I thought I had nothing to lose. I pulled out my dagger and swung it right into his neck.

However, with a reflex out of this world, he grabbed my hand and landed a good punch on my face. The punch made me hit the bars of Elsa's cage hard.

"You're lucky that I'm patient tonight. Besides, I have Elsa in my possession," he smirked. While I was still concussed, he took out a set of keys and opened Elsa's cage. With a reckless pull, he pulled me into the cage and closed it once again.

"Behave."

With that note, he left me alone with Elsa. My plan had been executed immaculately.

I sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Elsa… I should've come up with a better plan," I turned to her, who was still asleep. "I know you're not hearing me, but I want you to know that… it's been nice knowing you, and Anna. I'm fairly sure you'll get out of this alive, unlike me, who's not a person with powers."

I scooched closer to her and whispered by her ear, "Please tell Gideon that… I'm sorry. And I love him."

I returned to my original position and sighed dramatically.

It didn't take long until I was in a deep slumber due to my pounding head.

However, as deep as I was in my slumber, minutes later, I heard someone knocking the bars of the cage. I slowly opened my eyes, but quickly gasped afterwards.

"Hiccup?!"


	32. Chapter 32

**Hiccup's POV**

Darkness.

Then suddenly, brightness.

Not just any brightness; it was colorful. Last time I saw something this colorful was when I discovered the Hidden World with Astrid. The vibrant bioluminescence, the colorful dragons, radiant and could actually hurt your eyes if you stare at them for too long. Somehow, this brightness was so much like the one I experienced back then in the Hidden World.

To really get to know of my whereabouts, I needed to open my eyes. But my muscles wouldn't let me move that easily. From the amount of stretching I had to do in order to wake them up, I concluded that I was out for at least several days. Not to mention my utter hunger and thirst. Finally, having stretched enough, I rubbed my eyes to gain clearer vision, and that's when I realized that the colors of the brightness were indeed that familiar to me.

I was covered in large leaves, possibly as blanket to cover me in warmth. Above me were… land corals? Vegetations that I didn't recognize what they were. I slowly stood up to emerge between them, and right away, a big creature flew past me.

"Whoa!"

I looked up, and there were dragons. Tons of them. This sight was too distinct to forget; The Hidden World!

"How the hell did I end up in here?" I asked myself, slightly hoping that someone would answer me. The answer soon came in the form of a Night Fury, who landed abruptly behind me several meter away.

"Toothless!"

I rushed to the dragon, who happened to have landed by a beach. With sands. Noticing my presence, the dragon responded with an excited roaring. He opened his arms and accepted mine that crashed into his.

"You silly dragon! Did you take me here?" I asked, pulling away from the dragon. He answered with a low grumble, a 'yes' in his dictionary.

"Oh wow… I can barely remember what even happened after…" I tried putting myself down the memory lane to recall every single event that led me to here, the Hidden World.

"You managed to ignite the Red Death's mouth on fire, did you not?" I asked my Night Fury. He bobbed once. "Okay… then we flew around… ah, I forgot to gain some altitude, resulting in us flying into the cliff of the island, haha."

My nonchalant laughter was too nonchalant for the dragon's taste; he grumbled and turned around in annoyance, swiping my feet in the process to cause me lose balance. Luckily, the sand was soft, and so was my bottom. Ignoring the dragon's naughty behavior, I grabbed my chin to recall of my memory again.

"And then… the Death rammed into us… how did we survive that?" I asked my dragon once again, to which I earned no reply. He simply walked away to a direction that I thought was random, but was not. The Light Fury came to join us, apparently.

"Oh hi there Lyrie!" I greeted. Not interacting with humans too much in her life, the Light Fury didn't bat an eye to me, the only human in the Hidden World. The female dragon simply greeted her Night Fury with lickings and head rubs. She proceeded to walk into the corals where I came from and lied down.

"And then… we broke into a large room… it was nothing but darkness. I do remember it being so hot. Then the Red Death came through, landed hard, and apparently it triggered the ground to shake violently… oh no," I cut myself with a gasp.

"Don't tell me that we activated the volcano?"

Toothless emerged from my right, and nodded his head.

I crossed my arms, not wanting to imagine of what followed, which was most likely utter destruction, New Berk's Ragnarok. But then I realized of the most crucial thing; I was out for a few days, in the Hidden World, perhaps the farthest place to spend the days being unconscious away from Arendelle.

"Toothless, we have to go!" I said out of the blue and climbed onto the dragon. He was taken by surprise, but he took his time to walk to the Light Fury through the corals. He grumbled several times to the Light Fury, most likely as a farewell. However, only after a closer look did I realize that he was bidding farewell not just to the Light Fury, but to his future offspring as well.

There, under the Light Fury lied three eggs. I gently hopped off the Night Fury and knelt down to have an even closer look. I was lucky that the mother of the eggs welcomed my presence.

"Hello there…"

I looked up to the proud father of the eggs, who really did look proud over his creation.

"Gotta hand it to you, bud. Congratulation," I clapped my hands. He grumbled lowly once in response.

"Well… Lyrie, can I borrow the father of these children away for a couple of days? A week, tops."

* * *

"You've been away in the Hidden World all this time?"

I bobbed my head once. "Yes. Now let's get you two out of here, shall we?"

"I can't think of a better offer," Cassandra replied as she scooched closer to the bars. "You're going to need to find the keys—"

I cut her off once hearing the word 'keys' as I pulled out one from the previous battle, the torcher. Quickly identifying the lock of the cage, I came up with a conclusion that I could either melt the two hinges of the door or the lock itself, but it looked like the thickest piece of metal in the world. So, either options would consume time. I went with the hinges.

I turned on the torcher and pointed the fire to the upper joint.

"Cassandra, tell me," I started while working, "What became of Berk?"

The Therondian initially gave a weirded look. "You didn't fly past it?"

"There were thick clouds on our way. I spent most of the time flying above the clouds. Are they…" I paused midway to allow her to continue.

"They are volcanic clouds. Berk has… well, your people said that there's a volcano underneath the island. It's been triggered, so there you have it," she explained. After completely melting the upper hinge, I let out one big sigh.

"Is there nothing left?" I asked hopelessly, beginning to work on the lower hinge.

Cassandra shook her head. "No, I'm afraid. I mean, the volcanic clouds eventually did reach here. It must've been one big volcano. Say, when did you arrive here, exactly?"

I chuckled. "Moments ago? When I saw the Therondian ships, I knew I had to postpone my landing. I actually watched everything from above; the Arendellian guards charging, Elsa being held as a hostage, you stepping up, and so on. Luckily, Night Furies are as black as the night itself."

"I see… where's your dragon?" She asked.

I pointed my index finger upwards. "Flying in circle, waiting for me to get you two out… Why are you imprisoned with Elsa, anyway?"

"My fault. I should've come up with better lies. Or attire, actually. King Adam suspected that I was with the Arendellians, judging from my sleeping gown," she shook her head in disbelief.

I looked at the sleeping ice queen. "And why is she so deep in her sleep?"

"Elsa had a date with King Adam. Drank a couple of bottles of wine, judging from the smell," she shrugged. "King Adam took her in to get to… Northuldra? Is that the correct name?"

My eyes widened. "How did he learn that name?"

"I don't know. What's in Northuldra?" She asked.

"Something that will most likely have a high monetary value," I shook my head. "Nokk, the water horse, is one of them. So, you know. The king has an eye for something out of this world, right?"

"Oh god…"

Suddenly, the fire on my torcher when out just when I was about to finish. There was only a small piece of metal left on the hinge itself, no bigger in size than my own thumb. "No! Dammit! It's out of fuel!"

"I'll just give it a push, move back," Cassandra commanded. With a powerful kick, she broke down the door with a loud _clang._ I could only hope that the sound of the rain was loud enough to cover that.

I walked into the cage after Cassandra got herself out of it. "All right… how do we get her out of this thing…" I asked myself and Cassandra. Elsa was handcuffed on both hands, and the cuffs were shaped in a heavy blocky piece of metal that covered her hands completely, as if they were designed to suppress her power specifically. They were connected to chains that acted as a bridge between a machinery powered by coal that transferred heat to the cuffs themselves. The seemingly weakest point seemed to be the chains, but only if I had the torcher.

"No other way, we must cut our way out of here," Cassandra pulled out one of my two hatchets from my belt and handed it to me. Although feeling unsure of the option, I myself saw no other way. I accepted the object and began hitting the chains. I could tell that this was going to consume some time, as the tight space was not helpful at all with this manual labor, nor the heat of the coal machine, nor the anxiety caused by the loud clanging I was making.

I continued my work. Out of the blue, Cassandra pulled my other hatchet off. I turned to her to see her throwing the weapon to a Therondian who just emerged from the lower deck. The blade was planted into his forehead after landing on it, killing the man instantly.

"Fuck me, you scared the shit out of me!" I complained, continuing my work.

"I'm just trying to be helpful around here!" She said, walking away to retrieve the hatchet back. While doing so, another crewmate emerged from the stairs, which Cassandra didn't notice.

"Cassandra, behind you!" I warned.

The Therondian turned around. Not giving her opponent time to reach, Cassandra gave him a nasty slash with the hatchet she just pulled with utter recklessness from her previous opponent's head.

Of course, this was going to attract more and more unwanted attention.

"Hurry up with the chain!" She exclaimed, pulling up her sleeves and readying her hatchet as more men sounded in panic from below.

"Doing my best here!" I swung my hatchet hard at the chain, and it finally snapped. One chain done!

"Huh… huh?"

I looked up to an Elsa who had just woken up from her sleep.

"Elsa! Thank God you're awake," I grabbed both of her cheeks and connected my eyes to hers. "Listen, I need you to function fully."

"Huh…" she moaned slightly, still sleepy. "Hiccup?"

"Yes! You're not dreaming! We're gonna get you out of here—"

"Ack!" She cut. "Why are my hands so hot?" She raised both of her hands and was taken by surprise to see them entrapped. Her senses were finally kicking in.

"Can you use your power?" I asked.

Hearing the question, Elsa gave it a try. "Hnghh… I can't. This thing… I can't fight the heat. The metal is thick, too. It will take time for me to break free."

"Well start from now. We're going to need all hands on deck," I recommended. I continued cutting the last chain with my hatchet as Elsa tried her best to freeze the cuff. In the process, Elsa noticed the sight of Cassandra and the bloodbath she was in.

"Why is Cassandra here? And why is she killing her own men?" Elsa asked.

"Let's say her cover was blown off by her sleeping dress," I asked, trying my best not to sound bitter and sarcastic.

"Sleeping dress?..." She asked.

I didn't answer her. Instead, I kept on with my work. Cassandra was fighting by herself, Elsa's power was suppressed by this thing, and I was having the hardest time with the chain. The only thing that I needed last was Cassandra being pinned down in her fight.

"Hiccup! Help!"

I turned around, and it was what I just had in mind. Cassandra was pinned down by a man, and more were emerging through the narrow space of the stairs. Abandoning the chain, I rushed to Cassandra and kicked the man off of Cassandra. This gave a window for her to plant her blade on the crook of the man's neck, and that's exactly what happened.

"I'll handle the guys, you go back to Elsa!" I told the lady. With a nod, she picked herself up and rushed over to Elsa.

As if it was on cue, more men emerged from below. With a kick, I picked up the sword of the man Cassandra just took down.

"Just what on earth do you think you're doing, ya scrawny Viking?" One man threatened, raising his shield. Two more men followed him from behind. One of them was about to go after Cassandra, but I prevented him from doing so by throwing my sword to the man, which impaled his heart.

As much as I was happy with my sharp aiming, the action only raised more fury of my opponents. The two charged at me in the same time. Only armed with a hatchet, I jumped away from their direction at the very last second. Instead of crashing into me, they crashed into a pack of barrels which were behind me. I took my opportunity to cause some harm to the one with the shield, but he parried my swing with his own. I nearly lost grip of my weapon due to the large momentum. I was defenseless for a second for not being in a ready stance, and it was enough for the man to ram me with his shield.

"Gah!"

Just when I thought he was done, the other man lunged to me with his sword. It was aimed at my chest, so I ducked to avoid it, again, on the very last second. His sword impaled the wooden wall instead of my heart, and it was stuck. I took my chance and planted my blade on his side. It didn't end him, but it was painful enough for him to collapse. Right when I was about to anticipate the other guy, he hit my chest with the edge of his shield. I swore a bone just cracked. I collapsed to the agony he just caused against the wall.

"Afft!"

Out of nowhere, my opponent collapsed before me with a wound on his head. When I looked up, that's when I noticed that Elsa was behind this as she had blood stain on her cuff.

"You're okay?" Elsa asked, as she and Cassandra lent their hands to help me get up. I accepted them, patting my chest afterwards.

"Might need to protect my chest more…" I replied when a stinging sensation appeared in my chest. "Aghhh!"

I was about to collapse on my knees, but the ladies caught me.

"We can't stay here," Cassandra replied. To prevent more men from coming, she shut the hatch of the lower deck and placed a barrel on top. Just after she did so, loud banging sounded from the other side of the wooden hatch.

"Open it! You BITCH!"

"Come!" Elsa took me by the arm and led me and Cassandra out to the main deck. Right away, the heavy rain welcomed us. It only made it harder, if not, impossible, for me to spot my Night Fury on the sky. There really was no hope in spotting him visually, so I decided to simply call for his name to summon him.

"TOOTHLESS!" I yelled.

For a couple of moments, there was no sign of the dragon. So, I continued yelling his name until the deck just wobbled. When we turned around, we spotted the Night Fury.

I sighed in relief. "Finally! Let's go—"

A figure jumped from behind of the dragon, wielding a spear that he pierced through the dragon's right wing. The tip of the spear was planted on the wooden floor, disabling the dragon's mobility. Toothless growled in agony to the action, as he tried to break free but only ending up tearing a bit of his wing.

"Toothless, stop! You're only making it worse!" I warned the dragon. To worsen the state the Night Fury was in, the man hit the other end of the spear with his sword to plant the tip deeper into the floor. Having managed to disable the dragon, the man walked past him nonchalantly to face us with his sword.

"Adam, you're going to pay for this!" Cassandra threatened, raising her hatchet.

"So this is King Adam of Therondia?" I asked with a loud volume.

"Yes!" Elsa nodded.

"And who would you be?" King Adam asked. "The last Berkian there is? HA!"

"Chief of Berk," I bowed down slightly as a sarcastic manner. "Pleased to meet you."

I wasted no time and spun my body to build momentum quickly on my throw. At the end of the spin, I threw my hatchet to the king of Therondia.

_CLANG!_

Almost effortlessly, the king blocked the hatchet with his sword. It was sent flying.

"Oh you want to cut the formalities and jump straight in into your death?" He asked cockily.

"As if your men gave me any!" I barked back.

"Hiccup, you need to stop throwing your weapons away!" Cassandra complained. I was about to reply, but I noticed the sound of heavy footsteps from behind. That's when we learnt that the crewmates reached us. We were very much cornered here.

"Elsa, we can really use your power here…" I asked.

She clicked her tongue. "I'm trying!"

I glanced at her cuffs, which were actually covered in frosts. But it was a slow process, and we needed her powers now.

_Wheeshhhh…._

It was the distinct sound of a charging plasma blast. I looked up to Toothless, whose jaws were glowing brightly in purple. King Adam noticed this and bravely grabbed the beast by the jaw and aimed it upwards.

_PHEW—BOOM!_

Toothless spat the ball of plasma to the center mast of the ship. It instantly snapped into two pieces, the upper one collapsing. All of us avoided it by running away from the landing area. The towering mast landed, indirectly dividing the deck into two separate areas and separating us away from our foes, as it happened. This allowed me to pick up my hatchet.

"Free Toothless! We will buy you some time!" Elsa said, as she and Cassandra dashed off to face the crewmate. The sight of Elsa dashing off with her cuffs still made me briefly question how the hell she was going to buy me some time with the state she was in, but I brushed myself off from the question.

I was going to simply cut the spear in half to free Toothless, but seeing it was made out of metal, my rusty hatchet would not be up for the job. I tried pulling it out when King Adam jumped into me. I evaded him with a step backwards. Fortunately, my step was far enough to evade his sword as well, which he swung on his jump.

Seeing the failed attempt, the king lunged at me again. With a mere step to the right, I managed to avoid him and get myself a window to counter him with a sweep to his foot. The king lost his balance. Mid-fall, he used his sword to prevent himself from falling. I took my chance and landed a blow on his shoulder with my hatchet.

"AARGH!" The king whined in pain. Despite the pain, he still forced himself to counter me by pulling his sword into a swing right onto my chest. Being so close with the king, his blade hit my chest good, but didn't cut anything in the process due to my armor. However, its force still caused me pain due to the previous hit I had taken.

Slightly concussed by the counter attack, I opened my eyes to a lunging king of Therondia. To prevent my belly from getting impaled, I knocked the sword with a swing of my hatchet. It was enough to send it to the floor instead of my belly, but the body of the man himself still crashed into me. His entire weight soon collapsed on top of mine. Being on top and armed with nothing, his hands caught my neck and choked it. I tried reaching for his but his wiggling prevented me from doing so.

"Pass my hello to your people in hell…" He coldly spoke.

I was running out of breath when something knocked him away, sending him to the other side of the deck. When I looked up, that's when I realized it was Toothless' doing, who had probably done it with his tail. Just when I thought I could finally focus on freeing Toothless, three crewmates approached me to become my new opponents.

"Ah great, welcome," I taunted in sarcasm. I grabbed the sword that King Adam used previously and wielded it along with the hatchet. However, on the corner of my vision, I saw Cassandra being pinned down by a man on the other side of the deck. Her arm that possessed her hatchet was pinned down by the man's foot.

"CASSANDRA!" I yelled. Noticing my call, I aimed my hatchet and threw it to her.

**Cassandra's POV**

Reaching for the hatchet, I caught the object midair and immediately planted to the leg of the man to free my other arm. My foe whined in pain, and I shouted my battle cry as I kicked the man with both foot and regained my footing in the end. Because of the kick I had given, the man lost his balance and fell off the ship.

Just when I thought I'd gone rusty after not having a proper swordfight for years. And I was using a pair of axes!

I turned around to face whoever was next. The next opponent for me took me by surprise; King Adam of Therondia. He seemed to be regaining his composure after whatever had happened to him. While doing so, he picked up a lying sword and shield from the previous opponents I had defeated.

"Still standing for your treason, Cass?" He asked, banging his sword against his shield.

"Siding up with a kingdom of human-trafficking? Once is enough in my life," I put myself into a ready and welcoming stance. I waited for him to come, but growing impatient, I raised my hatchets and swung them to his shield. My plan was to take his shield off with reckless force, and it seemed to be working, as his body recoiled against my swinging. He was about to counter with a swing of his sword from below, but a simple kick to it was enough to cancel his counter attack. Giving the king no time to break, I swung both of my hatchets to his shield once again. On the corner of my vision, I spotted that his grip on his shield was right on the verge, so I used the crook of my blade to remove his shield entirely from him.

With his body completely exposed, I readied another blow, but someone rammed me from behind.

My body rolled on the deck. In the middle of the roll, I set my foot to stop me within an instant. Looking up ahead, I realized that there were four crewmates behind me previously. They helped their king stand up on his feet when they glared me in a threatening manner.

_PHEW—BOOM!_

Out of nowhere, Hiccup's dragon spat a bright fireball into the direction of the opponents before me from the other side of the deck. The four crewmates didn't stand a chance and were sent flying off the ship. Miraculously, the king didn't get hit by the fireball, though he was definitely stunned by the sudden explosion. Of course, I had to take the window.

I aimed my hatchet at the king. I spun my body to build a momentum and threw my weapon at the end.

_CLANG!_

I looked up to the King of Therondia who had blocked my throw with a shield he just picked up. The hatchet was sent flying away once again.

**Elsa's POV**

"HYAH!"

Using my cuff, I punched the man in the face, blood splattering all over me. Right away after the contact, the icy spikes I had created shattered into pieces. Due to the heavy mass of the cuff, each swing I swung wore me out instantly. To make things more tiring than it already was, I was also flowing my energy to the cuffs to freeze them so then I could break them while fighting these goons.

I looked over to my left to see my next opponent. Or opponents. Three of them, all wielding swords and shields.

I looked down to my heavy blocky cuffs. "Come on… Hnghh…"

More short icicles grew on the cuffs. To simply create this had already made me need to catch a breath, but my opponents would not allow that. One lunged at me, his sword pointing at my belly. To counter this, I simply hit back the sword with my cuff. Its heavy mass did come in handy after all, though its price could become overwhelming. To counter the attack, I jabbed the man in the face, planting the icicles on his skin in the process. The agony I had given immediately caused him to collapse. He was downed. A breathing room, finally, perhaps?

Nope.

Right away, his friend caught me from behind. He caught both of my arms and kept them behind my back. He made me face his friend, who was readying to end me with his sword.

"Let me… go!" I screamed. Afterwards, the man who had my arms screamed in pain, releasing them. I pulled my arms to see bloody icicles that had probably impaled him. The man in front of me was taken slightly aback after witnessing me and my dangerous magic. But he shook it off and charged at me with his shield.

To minimalize the impact he was going to give to me with his shield, I shielded myself with the cuffs. Once making contact with a loud _clang_ , I sensed the icicles shattering into pieces. Once again, I lost my only weapon onboard. Noticing the sight, he used this opportunity to sweep my foot, causing me to lose balance and kiss the floor.

I taught myself after the amount of trainings and battles I'd done before this moment to always roll away to whichever direction whenever I was pinned down on the floor. So, I did, and it did me a favor as I managed to avoid the sword of my opponent which was going for my spine. Instead, it went straight into the floor, very much stuck. I took my chance to grow icicles on my left cuff to give the man a good hit by the foot. However, once ready with the icicles, the man pinned my wrist down, not allowing my hand to move, which gave him more time to pull out his sword.

I looked over to my remaining free cuffed hand. I was getting sick of my only weapon of choice, so instead, I focused my energy of my right hand to attempt to freeze the cuff and shatter it.

"Come onnn!" I whined in exhaustion. The cuff glowed bright blue and I smashed it against the floor, shattering it into pieces. My right hand was now free!

_Smack!_

Conveniently, a hatchet landed near it out of nowhere.

I grabbed the weapon, coated it with ice, and planted the blade right away to the man's leg. Of course, he stepped off my hand due to it. I was about to stand up to finish him, but a fireball hit the man, sending him off the ship. I turned to the source and saw Hiccup still struggling to pull out the spear that had trapped Toothless while multitasking with the fight he had to attend against the Therondian crewmates.

"Elsa, watch out! Behind you!"

It was Cassandra's voice. Without even turning around to see what the fuss was all about, I summoned a wall of ice with my free hand all around me.

_CLANG!_

Finally, I turned around. There he was, King Adam, about to land a blow with his sword but ended up only chipping a tiny piece of my wall. Irritated, the king pulled his sword out attempted to pierce through the wall with the tip. To prevent myself getting penetrated, I thickened my wall, and it did the job well.

"Men!" King Adam raised his sword, "Destroy this witchcraft!"

Initially, none of his men appeared to obey his command right away, as King Adam proceeded to continue breaking through my ice all by himself. Soon however, I sensed a wild vibration on the ice behind me. I turned around and saw a man twice my height, wielding a long battle axe. With his swinging, his battle axe was eating through my ice, and it was only a matter of time until my wall of ice reached its verge of shattering.

With a quick decision-making, I barrel-rolled away from my threat right on the second I unsummoned my wall of ice. I regained my composures to welcome King Adam who was rushing towards me with his sword about to be landed at me. As quickly as possible, I created an ice shield to protect myself. Once making contact, a crack immediately spread through my shield. I flowed more of my magic to it to strengthen its endurance, but it was useless against the amount of force King Adam was giving. His muscles had me pinned down against a mast. To worsen the already worst situation, I spotted the previous tall man walking towards me with his battle axe.

He pointed the hook of his axe right at me, and it didn't take an expert to determine whether or not it would penetrate my ice.

_Phew—BOOM!_

A fireball ignited on the man's back. The explosion brought him to his knees, and it didn't stop there. Toothless jumped onto the man's back and began to wrestle with him with all of his might. The scene distracted King Adam's attention, as he looked behind him to see what could have possibly happened, and in the process, loosened his force on my shield. I took the window and retaliated by pushing him away.

Being pushed a couple steps away, I used my cuffed hand to land a punch on his beautiful face after creating short icicles on it. Once again, he was sent spinning several steps backward, and conveniently, Cassandra was there to welcome him. The Therondian grabbed her king by the neck from behind and pushed his back with his already-ongoing momentum to slam him into the floor. It was safe to say that her move colored me shock.

Having been slammed into the floor, the king took his time to recover his composures. However, he was about to interrupted when Hiccup walked up to him and impaled his heart from behind with the spear that he used on Toothless previously.

That was the end of him.

And it was very much noticed by the remaining Therondian crewmates onboard. One that was most horrified was the wife of the fallen king herself, Queen Ida, who happened to have come out from wherever her hiding was.

"A-Adam!"

The battle onboard immediately ceased. Queen Ida rushed over to his husband's corpse and broke down in tears. Hiccup, Cassandra, and I moved closer to one another and we took steps backward.

"M-My love…" The Queen of Therondia looked up to us, looking miserable as ever with the tears and the soaked attire due to the harsh rain. "You MONSTERS! I declare WAR with Arendelle!"

"We've always been, right after the moment you kidnapped me. But I will be waiting," I calmly replied and turned to Hiccup. "Hiccup, let's go."

Right on cue, the Night Fury landed next to us after presumably hanging by the mast of the ship. We hopped on the dragon's back with me in the middle and with a single push, the dragon leaped upwards. However, the hole on the dragon's right wing was interfering with our stability.

"Will he be able to hold?" Cassandra asked, worry sounding in her tone.

"I don't know…"

Soon, we had our answer. Even after flapping his wings rapidly, the dragon was not able to keep afloat on the air with all of our weights on his back. The Therondians saw this as an opportunity for them to charge at us with their weapons drawn and battle cries shrieked.

"Hiccup!" I called.

The dragon turned around and sprinted to the bowsprit of the ship, where the distinct unicorn sculpture was planted. We held on to each other while keeping ourselves balanced as well. Once reaching the sculpture, the Night Fury leaped forward and expanded his wings. With the momentum built prejump, the Night Fury was able to glide away from the ship.

The breeze of the cold air indicated our long-waited freedom. Or at least, I thought it did. It didn't take long for me to realize that the ship was sailing right in the middle of the armada, and it didn't take long as well for the other Therondians in the armada to notice the sight of a flying dragon with three figures on the back. Sadly, in order to get to mainland, we had to fly through the armada to get there.

"Hiccup, be careful, they might shoot anything at us—whoa!" I warned, but had myself cut when a cannonball flew past us. Soon, more followed, but not just in the form of cannonballs; bullets, arrows, and bolas, anything reliable to take us down from the sky.

Taking radical evasive maneuver, Toothless zigzagged on the air, but it had a cost; altitude. As we dodged here and there, our altitude grew lower and lower, and even with the amount of flapping Toothless was doing, it was simply not enough for us to keep a safe altitude.

"WATCH OUT!" Cassandra yelled, pointing downward. I looked down and a net of bolas was heading towards us at high speed.

Unfortunately, the warning was too late.

The bolas entangled with Toothless' wings and ourselves. Right away, we lost altitude drastically and plummeted into the water.

"WHOAA—" all of us yelled in unison.

Due to being entangled, all of us had a hard time getting ourselves out of the bolas. Time was running short, as our weights brought ourselves deeper into the water. Hiccup began to cut the net with his hatchet, though his panicking dragon was not helping the process whatsoever. I tried doing the same by creating a dagger of ice and using it to cut free. However, the breath I took before splashing in was too little, I lost myself moments later.

My sense of visual was out, but my sense of touch was not, as I suddenly felt something pushing us from below. Whatever it was, it brought us to the surface seamlessly, allowing us to breathe in our dearly needed oxygen, though we were still under the net of the bolas.

"Bwoah! What was that?" Hiccup asked.

Then, a familiar pair of glowing blue eyes materialized underwater before us.

"Nokk!" I spoke. "You're here!"

The water beneath us was flowing upwards, allowing us to stay afloat. Hiccup immediately used the chance to fully free ourselves by cutting the net. Toothless unfolded his wings and dried them by flapping continuously.

"We can't stay here, we're sitting ducks—" Hiccup spoke.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

As if he jinxed it, cannons of the armadas around us were fired to our direction. We merely shielded ourselves with our arms, basically accepting the cannonballs… that actually never even arrived.

Out of nowhere, a distinct chirping sounded from afar. When I opened my eyes, I noticed autumn leaves blowing by. It could've only meant one thing.

"Gale is here, too!" I exclaimed. I looked around for the spirit of air and noticed not the spirit itself, but the previous cannonballs flowing about on the air in a manner that only wind could do. The windy spirit had caught them midair with gusts of wind!

"Gale, the wind spirit?" Hiccup asked.

"Who else?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"Goodness, that was close…" Cassandra sighed in relief.

The Viking patted his dragon. "Toothless, you up? We still need to get out of here!"

The dragon grumbled low, shaking his head as a 'no'. Toothless kept on flapping his wings desperately to gain the slightest altitude possible to flee from the scene. However, it was not looking good, the dragon still struggled. It's a good thing that Gale was present to protect us from the cannon fires.

"Elsa, care to make some ice for us to stand on?" Hiccup requested. It was an idea I should've come up with ages ago.

"Gladly," I replied. With a swing, I summoned a roughly made ice below our feet. We finally had a ground to stand on, though it was ice, and ice is slippery (for people with no ice powers, at least).

This allowed Toothless to get a good ground to grip on, though he was still struggling to get a good grip. During the process, more and more cannons were fired at our direction, and judging from the rapid movement of the air spirit, I could tell that Gale was getting overwhelmed in shielding us from the cannonballs.

"All right, Toothless, you ready?" Hiccup asked once his dragon finally got a fixed position on the ice. The dragon nodded once and expanded his wings. With a leap and a push, the dragon brought us onto the air once again, but not by much. It was a humble leap with a humble altitude.

"Gale! We can use some help over here!" I called. With that calling, Gale immediately picked us up with a breeze of wind torrential enough to allow the dragon to glide. However, with Gale busy carrying us on the air, I had a feeling that we were exposed to cannon shots.

I was right.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

"Hiccup! Behind us!" I notified the Viking. Multiple cannons from our rear were shot towards our direction. Hiccup made Toothless dive slightly to avoid the incoming shots. We expected the cannonballs to fly past us from above, but none did. When we looked behind, we spotted two Earth Giants shielding us!

"The Earth Giants!" I spoke out of relief.

"The what now?" Cassandra asked.

"The Earth Giants! They're the Earth Spirits!" I answered, spectating the giants chasing after us and using their mere backs as a shield to fend with the cannonballs.

"So are they spirits or giants?" She asked again. I shook my head with a chuckle, waving a hand to wave it off.

"You have some weird friends, Elsa…" Hiccup commented, half turning to me while steering Toothless. To this, I raised a brow.

"Talking to dragons doesn't make you any weirder?" I shot back.

He turned to me, about to say something, but the view that he saw dropped his jaw. I turned around to see what he was spectating, and my jaw dropped as well. Some of the sails of the fleet of ships had caught on fire, _purple_ fire. One by one, more ships caught on the same purple fire.

"Bruni?" I gasped in disbelief.

"What, the tiny lizard?" Hiccup asked.

"A what now?" Cassandra added.

Seeing no need in explaining, I made the Viking face forward. "Just focus on getting out of this, Hiccup!"

With that stern and clear command, he navigated Toothless through the tight spaces of the armada. With Gale's help, the spirit stopped every arrow, every bullet, anything that could cause harm to us. Thanks to every spirit present, we managed to reach a clearing, which happened to be the entrance of the fjord itself. After creating a safe distance between ourselves and the armada, I looked behind to see the fiery sight of it, which oddly and ironically resembled the sight of New Berk being consumed in blaze. I simply hoped that Hiccup didn't find it the same way I did.

"… Did Berk look like this when you left it?" Hiccup asked, who happened to be watching the same scenery I was watching. He signaled Toothless to hover on the air with the help from Gale to fully take in the view.

"Do you… really want me to answer?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes."

Despite the response, I still didn't have the guts to answer it.

"Yes, it did," Cassandra responded. "In fact… Anna and I had the closest look of it. And Gideon, too."

The Viking turned to the Therondian, looking puzzled. "Huh?"

The Therondian waved it off. "Anna will explain."

We remained hovering, watching the view ahead of us in silence while being poured with rain. The two Earth Giants provided us shelter from the rain by simply covering us from it with their hands while spectating the same view.

Far ahead, Bruni's fire was nowhere near being prone to water, so the fire was still consuming everything in its path. It was a disturbing view, if I were so honest with myself, despite having been kidnapped and about to be sold to a human-trafficking market.

An idea popped inside my mind.

"Hiccup, could you let me land, please?" I requested.

"Oh, just a moment—"

"I mean, on the water," I cut. "I want to end this. Let's hope the Therondians can swim."

He looked at me with a suspicious look. However, he did as requested. He made his dragon lower our height, low enough for me to step onto the water. Mentally commanded, the water below me froze, giving me a solid ground to stand on.

I looked to my cuffed hand and grabbed it with my free hand. I flowed my energy into the cuff, both from inside and outside. Glowing brightly, the cuff soon broke into pieces after I smashed it with a punch. Finally, with both hands freed, I could unleash my truest power.

Flurry of ice began to form around my arms. I concentrated to the fleet of ships up ahead and gathered my power.

 _"_ _Raghhh!"_ I raised both of my arms, and giant icicles shot up from the water, impaling every ship there was.

Feeling absolutely wasted, I was brought on my knees as the ice below me melted.

**Anna's POV**

Multitasking between steering Molly and keeping my torch alive, I dashed along the coastline of the fjord of Arendelle. In my group, there were General Mattias and his officers, and the Berkians. We were chasing after my sister and Cassandra, but the presence of the harsh wind of the storm meant that the armada was sailing faster than usual. It didn't take long for them to exit the fjord when we had merely done a quarter of the coastline.

The plan was to reach an old dock located by the entrance of the fjord. There were boats that we didn't know their condition, but it was a chance I was willing to take to save my sister. Even if it meant that I would have to swim my way to rescue her.

I watched along the fjord while riding Molly. Because of the torrential rain, I could not see the other end of the fjord. However, a bright blue speck of light emitted from the fjord.

"Stop!" I commanded, braking. With that command, everybody on their horses pulled their harnesses to stop.

"What is it, my queen?" General Mattias asked.

"Did you not see that light?" I asked.

"What light?" The general asked again.

"I saw it, too…" Astrid added. "What could it be?"

We watched blankly at the torrential water ahead. As we were doing so, I sensed the earth shake. As time passed, it grew larger, until everyone noticed it. Our horses started to panic due to the weird phenomenon. It all became clear when I looked up ahead once again; the Earth Giants. Two of them, along with the other spirits of Northuldra, including my sister, who seemed to be struggling to stay on Nokk's back. They were all approaching us.

"E-Elsa!" I called.

I hopped off Molly, about to welcome her. But then, a black figure landed right before us.

Toothless, with Hiccup and Cassandra on his back!

My eyes didn't instantly believe at the sight, so I had them rubbed before seeing the same sight once again.

"I-Is that really you, Hiccup?!" I asked, soon mixing my tears with the droplets of the rain.

He hopped off his dragon and opened his arms. "It's me, Anna."

Gasping deeply, I crashed myself into his arms.


	33. Finale

**Anna's POV**

I opened my eyes, and I was greeted by the ceiling of my room.

I could tell that I was asleep for merely a few hours, but weirdly, my body felt no need for any more extra sleep.

But then I noticed; I was greeted by the ceiling, which I could barely see before I went to bed because of the pitch-black darkness the rain was giving. I bolted upright and turned to my window, and there it was, sunrise, with almost no clouds. It appeared that the rain from last night had completely lifted off, allowing sunlight to reach the earth seamlessly. I was prepared to face a day with almost no sunlight just because of how thick the clouds were.

"Mh…"

I looked down and barely noticed the sight of Hiccup's bare back, his bottom half enveloped in the blanket. That's when I noticed that my own bottom half was exposed, so I quickly hid it under the blanket. This reminded me of what happened last night.

He wanted to call it a day at the Olsen's, but I didn't allow him and forced him to do it in my bedroom, instead. My instinct as a loveless lover told me to do so, and luckily, Hiccup was obedient. After arriving, the rest was history.

Seeing Hiccup was still snoring softly, I scooched over to his side and planted a kiss on his shoulder and another one on his hair. He didn't even seem to notice the gesture, to which I didn't want him to as I got off the bed to put on a dress. My hero must've done some tiring fighting against the Therondians.

While dressing up, I heard some chattering from the courtyard, in which my window a gave a view of. Having finished dressing up, I looked over to the courtyard and noticed probably almost all servants of the castle sweeping the place with brooms. Apparently, the rain had left a big mess all over the castle. The roof was covered in ash, and so was the courtyard, the walls, everything! One particularly most noticeable spot was the stain of volcanic ash all over my own window, which was in a need of a desperate cleaning.

Among the crowd, I spotted both Elsa and Cassandra, doing the same thing as everybody else; cleaning the courtyard. They were three quarters done with the job, roughly, and I didn't want to miss out.

I rushed out of my room and exited the castle through the main entrance. I approached the crowd while greeting good morning's here and there to see my sister. She and Cassandra spotted my arrival right away.

"Good morning sis," Elsa greeted, continuing to sweep the floor.

"Good morning, Your Highness," Cassandra added.

"Mornin'," I replied. "Can someone give me a broom as well? I don't want to be left out," I asked.

"Here you are, Anna," a voice replied from behind, which turned out to be Gerda. I accepted her broom with a smile.

"Thank you, Gerda," I said, and she replied with a nod and walked off to probably get another broom for herself. With that, I started cleaning.

"How long have you guys been doing this?" I asked the two.

Cassandra stuck her bottom lip out. "An hour? With all hands on deck, this is relatively quick, though, considering the width of the place we have to cover."

"You two woke up early?" I asked again.

"Yeah, pretty much," Elsa smiled.

I stopped sweeping briefly. "But have you two had enough rest yet?" I asked, concern drawing on my face. "Elsa, are you not dizzy or something?"

"Perhaps the battle brushed it off," Cassandra snorted. "It's almost magical that you actually woke up. Can't imagine what it would've been like had you not done so. We would've had to carry you around."

Elsa shrugged, smiling a smile that seemed to acknowledge Cassandra's response. "What she said."

"A'ight, whatever floats your boat," I shrugged. "But don't force yourself—whoa!"

I was cut when out of nowhere, a Night Fury walked past me on his two hind feet while biting a broom to 'swipe' the floor. His reckless and zig-zag movement caused the others to make way for the big dragon. Either he was actually sweeping the ground of using the broom to make drawings, only Hiccup would be able to tell.

"Who gave the dragon a broom?" I asked.

My sister lifted her hand. "I did."

"I don't think he's helping a lot…" I said, watching Toothless accidentally sweeping a servant's foot with his tail and causing him to lose balance. Not realizing his mistake, the dragon kept on dancing with his broom and bumping onto more people.

"He is trying his best," Elsa replied. "It will be alright, Anna. Later, he will be able to help us clean the roofs."

I shrugged at the idea. "I mean, yeah…"

"Let's just finish this really quick, Anna," Elsa said. "The quicker we finish the courtyard, the quicker we get to the village."

I turned to her rapidly. "You mean we're going to clean the village as well?"

"Only the streets," Kai replied. "Besides, volcanic ashes are useful for the soils. Do you remember your geography class lessons, my queen?" He smirked dirtily.

I chuckled uneasily. "Ehe… yeah?"

"Good then," Kai replied.

Only after a defeated sigh did I finally continue my work again. I knew for a fact that the streets of Arendelle stretched for kilometers, and it could only mean a long day of hard work ahead. For the first time in forever, I actually wished I could just face the paperwork for the time being. But ashes were more important, I guess.

After a few more moments of sweeping, we finally finished the area. Though I didn't participate on the whole work, I could tell that the hard work really paid off. The original colors of the architecture really came to life.

"Alright, let's go to the streets?" I asked everybody.

Everybody nodded. With that cleared out, the guards opened the main gate. I led everybody out, and as I was doing so, I already spotted the work ahead that needed working. The bridge was covered in the same volcanic ash, and so was the lamps. Up ahead, I could see the houses in the village was in the same state as well, but surprisingly, the villagers were already out of their houses to clean things out as well. To finish the works ahead quicker, I came up with an idea to divide the servants. I divided them to work on different areas evenly, and the last group, aka myself, Cassandra, and Elsa to work with whichever we desired.

After understanding the instructions, my servants set off, except for the ones that were to take care of the bridge. Cassandra, Elsa, Toothless, out of nowhere, and I set off to whoever we could find that needed helping. Luckily, we were already fond with Night Fury. Once reaching the village area, we went over to the statue of my parents that had very few people cleaning it. The villagers noticed our presences. It was most likely due to Toothless, but once they spotted _us_ , they began to clap.

"My Queens, thank you!"

"Queen Anna, Queen Elsa! You have our gratitude!"

"Your Majesty! Thank you for protecting the kingdom once again!"

"Queen Anna! Thank you!"

Initially, I simply replied with a wave of hand until I reached to the point where a lot more people showed up to express the same thing. They shook our hands, bowed before us, any gesture to show gratitude. It got overwhelming pretty soon. Some of the ones who couldn't make through of the crowd clapped their hands, making the atmosphere more and more alive by the second.

I really wanted to get out of the crowd, but I had no idea of how to do so politely. But then my hero came, Toothless, who growled loudly enough to scare the crowd, creating a room for us to literally breathe.

"Toothless," I caught the dragon by the head and pulled him away. "It's okay… shh…"

I looked up to the crowd, fear coloring their expressions. "I'm sorry for that. But really…" I scratched my hair, smiling sheepishly. "It wasn't just me. I had a lot of people watching over my back—"

On the corner of my vision, I spotted two familiar figures in the crowd. Valka and Astrid. They were watching my 'speech' curiously.

"Valka! Astrid!" I waved a hand, gesturing them to come over. "Come here!"

Showing hesitance initially, the duo eventually walked through the crowd to reach us. I made them face the crowd around. "These two are just a few of the Vikings that helped us out! Without them, I couldn't have survived out there," I said with a little intended dramatic tone for dramatic purposes. My listeners nodded their heads and clapped their hands. The duo of Vikings merely bowed before them.

"Not to mention," I gestured to Cassandra, who seemed to be nervous by the crowd. "Cassandra of _Therondia_ ," I emphasized her origin, and the name made the crowd frown instantly. "You heard that right. But without her masterclass acting, she wouldn't have been able to save my sister."

"Oh Anna, you're making me blush," Cassandra replied.

"See? Masterclass acting!" I chuckled a little.

"And the royal guards! And my sister, too!" I gestured to my sister. "I noticed some of you only thanking me, not my sister. Yeah, at one point, she did seem like a helpless damsel in distress," I commented. That earned a burst of laughter and a 'friendly' nudge on my side by Elsa. "But her spirit friends came to rescue! Not to mention she also sank the ships—"

"Okay, Anna, no need to mention that," Elsa cut in.

"Ah, okay—" I quickly acknowledged. "And of course… the chief of Berk himself… who's still asleep, I'm afraid. But he'll join us pretty soon, I bet."

"Your Highness!"

Out from the crowd came Lady Olsen, seemingly eager to say something. "We were thinking about celebrating this victory! How about a dinner with the _WHOLE_ kingdom?"

My eyes widened at the suggestion. I looked to the other villagers and they seemed to either clueless about the idea most likely because it was Lady Olsen's own idea but was drawn into the idea or they really had done a briefing together previously and agreed with the proposal. Maybe it was mix between the two.

"Umm… the entire people?" I asked.

"Yes! The guards, the servants, the housewives, the kids, heck, _the pets_ , everybody!" She proposed. "We were thinking about placing tables and benches along the main street in a line formation. From the most western part of the street to the most eastern part. Lit every street lamp to make the night alive. We cook in every kitchen there is in the kingdom. It will be amazing!"

It would be a horror of logistics. And manual labors. Though, yes, it sounded like the best idea there was. I could picture the delicious foods and the amazing atmosphere, but we still had a ton of cleaning to do. However, the radiant eagerness of the villagers beat me.

"All right… I guess, each family can have one person cooking in the kitchen," I instructed,

"YEAHHHH!"

but was interrupted right away with a big cheering of the villagers. I gestured them to listen to me.

"I will have to fetch with the other servants to start cooking as well, if we want them to finish before nightfall. The others will continue cleaning the village, and after that, we proceed to decorate the street. Along the main street, you said, Lady Olsen?" I asked.

"Along the main street," the lady confirmed.

"Very well. Dinner at eight. Don't miss it out!" I smiled. Once again, they cheered at the top of their lungs and spread to share the news to the other villagers. After they all returned to their work stations, I let out a relieved sigh.

"Goodness… that was completely out of nowhere…" I said.

"Well, it's been a while as well since we last had a feast with everybody, to be fair," Elsa replied, beginning to sweep the area around the statue.

"I will tell Mrs. Hoffman to join cooking as well," Astrid spoke out of nowhere, pointing her thumb to the back. "And Anna… thank you."

"Awe, you're welcome," I smiled and hugged the Viking. She returned the hug briefly before heading over to my sister.

"And you too, Elsa," she hugged my sister and let go to Cassandra.

"And, Cassandra, too, of course," she hugged. "I didn't get the chance to do it last night. Thought now was the best timing."

"You're very much welcome, fellow Berkian," Cassandra smiled proudly.

With that, she dashed off to somewhere where Mrs. Hoffman might be. I watched her with a warm smile until she disappeared to a corner.

"Is Hiccup really not awake yet?" Valka asked as she began to clean the statue with a piece of wet cloth.

"No… he's still somewhere inside the dreamland," I scoffed to myself, joining her.

"Weird, he's usually quite the early bird," she commented.

"Ehh… you gotta make an exception for this. He just arrived from the Hidden World. Really, Toothless is supposed to be the one who's not awake yet," I replied.

"I'd say it's pretty even between the two," Cassandra added. "After all… he did slay King Adam."

My eyes bulged right away. "He did?! You didn't tell me!"

Cassandra shrugged innocently. "I guess that detail slipped away."

"King who?" Valka asked.

I turned to her. "King Adam… he's the king of Therondia."

She gave the same reaction I made, though she was frozen for a couple of moments longer than I was. "Oh my… that's…"

Relieving? Heroic? Amazing?

She suddenly waved it off. "In the past," she completed, continuing her work on the statue. Perhaps Valka would like to keep her truest impression of the statement to herself, to which I decided to simply respect her choice. For a few moments, we shared no talks whatsoever to focus on the statue. At one point, Kai showed up to ask the clarity of the newly shared news of the sudden plan for the dinner. I clarified the news and he was slightly taken aback, to which I could merely giggle at. I requested him to book a table for me near the statue before he left to continue to work.

"Say… what happened to the other remaining Therondians, again?" Valka asked.

I turned to the one who might be responsible, Elsa. "What happened?"

She let out a sigh. "I sank their ships, that's all. I guess the surviving Therondians are the ones who could swim. Simple as that."

"So you're saying that there are roaming Therondians out there in the wilderness?" I asked.

"I'm saying that there are _harmless_ and _leaderless_ Therondians out there," Elsa replied. At this, I didn't agree at all.

"They're still a threat… we need to send guards to search every last of them. Who knows what they're up to now," I crossed my arms. "I mean—whoops!"

I felt a sudden breeze of wind blowing past my sides, followed with several autumn leaves. The wind blew past the others, too, in a manner that could've only signified that it was Gale.

"Hello Gale~!" I greeted.

After sounding a playful chirping, the air spirit circled around the statue, and in the process, lifting the ashes all over it, too! Seamlessly, the wind carried the ashes to somewhere else. After doing so, the fun spirit did the same with the rest of the village. Magically, every bit of ash lifted off onto the air and was tossed off to the nearest soils. We spectated the spirit of air doing wonders in wonder, until within minutes, the view as far as I could see down the street was already free from volcanic ash!

"Oh thank you so much Gale!" I exclaimed. The spirit of air chirped and hovered before us. Afterwards, the spirit suddenly blew past us from behind, making us walk forward to the street.

"Whoa, where are you taking us, Gale?" Elsa asked. "Easy, we can walk on our own!"

Hearing the command, the spirit eased itself. With a gentle breeze, the spirit directed us to a direction it only knew.

"Where do you think it's taking us?" I asked my sister.

"No idea," she shrugged.

We simply followed along the spirit until we eventually reached the dock. The spirit kept on directing us, and finally, I could see where it was taking us.

"This was your ship, right, Cassandra?" I asked to the Therondian.

She nodded. "Mhm. Looks like Gale wants us to climb onboard."

"This had better not be another sailing trip," I said grudgingly. "I really have had enough…"

In the same manner, I walked up the wooden plank to reach the ship. Once reaching the deck, my jaw dropped to the floor to the sight of Therondian soldiers laying on the floor. Every bit of the floor was covered by the bodies of these Therondians. Immediately, I thought that they were corpses, so I jerked away from the sight.

"Please tell me these are not corpses…" I said. Valka, Cassandra, and Elsa were still brave enough to look at the odd sight, though they looked disgusted, too.

"They're not."

We turned to the source of the voice, where surprisingly, Queen Ida of Therondia was there. For a woman, she was a stunner, even with the soggy and slightly ripped dress she was in.

"They're all merely asleep," she gave us a sharp stare while having her arms crossed, despite the fact that they were defeated fair and square.

"Ah… okay," I cleared my throat. "Queen Ida, how did you reach this ship?"

"That windy friend of yours picked us up. He carried every survivor to this ship. But I have to admit that I have no idea how he put them into sleep," she sighed. "I was the only one whom he didn't put into sleep. Perhaps he wanted me to meet you. Awake."

"That might very well be the case," I shrugged.

Her eyes rolled to lock onto Valka, then to Cassandra. "How convenient. A Berkian and a… traitor," she said sharply.

"Warning…" Elsa warned, lifting her arm that suddenly had a flurry of ice. I gently took her arm away.

"Easy now, Els…" I spoke softly. Luckily, she was obedient.

_"_ _GRAWR!"_

All of us looked up to the central mast where a Night Fury was hanging on, glaring to the Queen of Therondia sharply. The Queen immediately took a few steps back.

I looked up to the queen and cleared my throat. "Don't mind the dragon. Have you done some counting? How many of them are there?"

She turned to me, still occasionally looking up at Toothless to keep track of the dragon's movement. "…Seventy-five. Not many escaped the sudden fire," she looked away. "I assume that's one of your friends, too?"

Damn, Bruni…

"Yeah…" I brushed my forearms uneasily, knowing that the spirit had laid genocide upon the Therondians, as much as they were our enemy. The thought was never going to leave anytime soon.

"So? What happens now? Since they're asleep, might as well take advantage of that and put an end to their lives, right?" Queen Ida suggested. For a moment, I processed the proposal before throwing it out of the window.

"No," I replied sternly. My response seemed to take the queen by a slight surprise.

I stepped forward, facing the queen with a stare I did not break even with a blink. "Gale, the air spirit, will take this ship with you guys onboard. Where to? I don't know, nor do I care. One thing for sure, it will be far away. Consider this mercy as a message, not as a chance for you to pull another _merciless_ action. Take into account as well that there are seventy-five of you, and there were only sixteen Berkians that made it out alive from your raid."

Ida remained silent.

"Have I made myself clear?" I asked, still connecting a gaze with her.

"…Crystal."

"Good," I replied and turned around, eyeing the trio to get off the ship. "Come, we have no more business here…"

"And… thank you, Queen Anna."

I froze for a moment before turning around to her. However, I was too late as I only caught a glimpse of her making her way to her cabin. I never thought such expression would come out of the mouth of a queen that smug, but apparently, it just happened right before me.

I sighed while smiling, turning around again to Cassandra, Valka, and Elsa. "Come."

With that, we got off the ship. Right away, the sails of the ship began to expand to the blow of wind Gale was summoning. Its harsh power made the ship exit the bay within moments as it slowly became a mere dot on the horizon while exiting the fjord.

"Hm. The village is cleaned. We sent off the remaining Therondians to let them decide their fate. What's next?" Elsa asked.

I scoffed. "Dear, we have some cooking to do. Let's help the cook out!"

"Oh dear…" Cassandra sighed.

"What, you can't cook, Cassandra?" I asked, smiling challengingly.

"I can cook. It's just, I have a feeling that this will not be the most sanitary cooking experience in the world," she smirked. "Yes, I'm prejudging, but my feelings are usually correct."

"You're pretty much correct, yeah," Elsa added. "Anna and I once tried to learn how to bake. Safe to say that she came out covered in cream and chocolate more than I was."

Recalling the memory was a dirty move by my sister. "Oh come on, Elsa… you really had to mention that?"

Cassandra burst in laughter. "Ohoho… I'm interested. Alright, it will be fun, I guess," she shrugged, walking off to the village.

"Oh, you also may call me Cass from now on. Three syllables, tiring, right?"

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

It was probably the longest sleep I've ever had in my entire life.

My muscles were practically frozen. It was getting dark, which probably meant I slept during the entire day until sundown. However, it was probably long needed, though yes, I woke up with the same 'tired' feeling that I had before going to sleep.

To cast the feeling out, I immediately had myself washed with cold water. Anna seemed to have a lot of bath tools that I didn't really recognize their functions. I mainly used the running water to really rinse myself off. Arendellian water was as cold as Berkian, so, of course, I came out of the bathroom shivering.

That is, until a pair of arms hugged me from behind as I was reaching for my clothes.

"Awww, my hero, you've showered!"

It was Anna, burying her face on my hair. I brushed her hands with mine and chuckled slightly. I turned around to kiss her, and she was way ahead of me as she smacked her lips onto mine.

We made out for a few moments, occasionally brushing our tongues together as we progressed. Her lips were savory, making me want more and more, but I knew I had to end it at some point. Eventually, she pulled away, though I still managed to steal a kiss even after she did so. We rested our forehead against each other's.

"Hey there," I greeted, staring into her deep blue eyes. "Have you got some clothes for me?"

"Oh! I have some male clothing here," she dashed off to her wardrobe and pulled out a dark green shirt with some black trousers. She handed them to me and I walked off to get dressed.

While doing so, I noticed something off.

"Why do you have male clothing inside your own wardrobe?" I asked, finishing myself up.

I looked up to a blushing Queen of Arendelle. "No… reason?"

I smirked at the sight, but then I noticed a dash of sauce near her lips. "Anna, you have," I gestured to the area I meant. "Some over there."

"Oh," she dabbed her mouth her hand.

"Did you just have dinner?" I asked.

"I just _prepared_ dinner," she took my hand and led me out of the room. "The whole Arendelle is having dinner together outside, come on!"

I could hardly imagine the whole Arendelle having a feast together, let alone the spot of where to do so. "What, like in the courtyard?"

She scoffed, running faster in the corridor. "No, silly! On the streets! I booked a table near the statues of my parents. The gang is also there, too!"

I tried to picture of how the sight would be, but I decided to just wait to see the real product later on. "On what occasion are we holding this dinner?"

She turned to me. "To celebrate our victory."

I scoffed this time. "Right…"

As we made a right turn through the corridor, we stumbled upon an Elsa that was chewing off a bar of chocolate in a very unqueenly manner.

"Caught in the action!" Anna shouted. "Come on, sis! I'm starving!"

She chuckled before joining us. "Even after giving that turkey a 'handful' taste?"

Anna turned to her briefly, blush coloring her cheeks. "Shh!"

Once we reached the courtyard, we stumbled upon a walking Cassandra and her son, Gideon. I nearly forgot of the fact that she was a mother. A fairly young one.

"Cass!" Anna called… by her nickname, I guess? "Gideon!"

The duo turned around to us and waved their hands. With Anna's lead, we ran past the two. "The table near the statue, okay?" Anna reminded.

"You got it!" Cassandra replied. With that, we ran out of the gate, and I was already out of breath, so I pulled my hand off of hers.

"Anna, chill, I need to catch my breath," I said as I crooked down my back while holding my knees.

"Yeah…" Elsa spoke. I turned to her to see her in the same posture. "Calm down, the food is not going anywhere."

"Yeah, but the dinner _has_ started!" Anna complained back. "And aren't you starving—"

_Crash!_

A brief blow of wind blew past me. I looked up and saw the Night Fury himself right in front of us. "Toothless! Hi!" I greeted.

Right away, the dragon approached me and tried to lick me, which I prevented by shutting his jaw tight. I gave the dragon scratches and hugs instead to ease his longing for his bestie's affection. The dragon's arrival gave me an idea.

"How about we just ride on Toothless? But I'll tell him to just walk. Gotta let that wound heal as fast as it could by flying as rarely as possible," I excused.

"That's the best idea in the world," Elsa commented and hopped on Toothless right away. Anna crossed her arms in annoyance initially before hopping on as well. With me on the most front spot, I signaled Toothless to start walking.

Up ahead, I noticed the street lamps being lit on, giving a warm and cozy atmosphere. As we progressed, that's when I noticed a line of tables with benches on the main street of the village ranging to the dock with people feasting on the food provided in front of them.

Once we walked past a table, the people began to notice our presences. Out of nowhere, they stood one by one and clapped their hands. I was a little confused by the action, but a ton more claps followed. They stood from their benches and clapped their hands while spectating us with smiles. Occasionally, one would cheer my name. Occasionally, a kid would show up and give me a token of appreciation in the form of a necklace with a wooden Nordic rune, which I realized was Iduna, the kid Anna and I rescued previously, after Anna reminded me. Occasionally, people would come up to me to shake my hands. This amount of gratitude was something rare in my life, and each one would always feel special.

The clapping showed no sign of stopping until we finally arrived on our table near the statue of young King Agnarr and Queen Iduna. Then, the clapping finally calmed down. We hopped off the Night Fury and sat on our benches, which were enough for four people. On the table of our right, the Berkians were busy feasting and drinking, something that I could not really control despite of my position as a chief since it was 'quite' the sight. But they rightfully deserved this special dinner.

I sat next to Anna, in front of Elsa. "Right… so…" I scanned the food in front of us. "We have some beef… oh wow, Mrs. Hoffman's stew? Apple pie as the desert…" I named the menus.

"We still have the Berkian wine," Elsa offered with a smile.

I smiled at the offer. "Very nice."

"No wine on the table, please," Cassandra requested, who just showed up with her son who she had in her arms. "At least, until I put my son into sleep."

"I guess water will have to do for now," I raised my glass and brought it to the middle of the table.

"For the victory that we have achieved, cheers," I looked to the ladies with a smile, as they raised their own glasses and knocked them against one another.

"Cheers!"

**Third person POV**

"Indeed… cheers for that…"

Black ashes rose from the ground as the man peeked from a dark alley of the village, but they were not the volcanic ashes that had previously covered Arendelle thoroughly. They were an essential feature of the man himself as a living being.

"I will be back… stronger."

**THE END**

**THERE IT IS. THE FINAL CHAPTER!**

**Thank you sooooo much for following this book. As you can read from the last passage, a sequel is very much happening! As for the time of its release, I can't tell you yet, but I'm not even sure of when it is coming out lol, but I will try my best to release it as soon as possible.**

**What do you think of the story? Please do let me know by leaving a review (: again, thank you very much for reading the story. It's been a pleasure.**

**Riley out.**


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